Method and apparatus to manage per flow state

• US 9,225,673 B2
• Filed: 08/07/2012
• Issued: 12/29/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 11/13/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Original Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Inventors: Friedman, Ben-Zion, Louzoun, Eliel, Tamir, Eliezer, Kopzon, Vladislav
• Primary Examiner(s): Mui, Gary
• Application Number:
  US13/568,796
• Publication Number:
  US 20120300633A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,239 Days
• Field of Search: 370/235
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 49/9073 Early interruption upon arrival of a fraction of a packet

Abstract

A method and apparatus to reduce memory required in a network interface controller to store per flow state information associated with a network connection is provided. Instead of storing per flow state information for a connection in the network interface controller at an endpoint of the connection, the per flow state information for the connection is stored in memory external to the network interface controller. The stored state information is conveyed in a packet by the network interface controller between the endpoints of the connection. For a Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) connection, the state information is conveyed between the endpoints of the TCP connection in a TCP option included in the TCP header in the packet.

Claims

1. At least one non-transitory computer usable medium comprising instructions to cause a device at a local system, when in operation, to:

access a first Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) segment the first TCP segment having a first segment header, the first segment header comprising at least one of;

(1) a single field value specifying a processor core on a remote system, or (2) a single field value specifying a location in memory of a remote system of flow context data associated with the first segment; and

cause transmission of a second TCP segment from the local system, the second TCP segment having a second segment header, the second segment header comprising at least one of;

(1) the single field value specifying the processor core on the remote system, or (2) the single field value specifying the location in memory of the remote system of flow context data associated with the first segment.

2. The at least one non-transitory computer usable medium of claim 1, further comprising instructions to cause the device, when in operation to:

cause transmission of a third TCP segment from the local system, the third TCP segment having a third segment header, the third segment header comprising at least one of;

(1) a single field value specifying a processor core on the local system, or (2) a single field value specifying a location in memory of the local system of flow context data associated with the third segment; and

access a fourth TCP segment, the fourth TCP segment having a fourth segment header, the fourth segment header comprising at least one of;

(1) the single field value specifying the processor core on the local system, or (2) the single field value specifying the location in the memory of the local system of flow context data associated with the third segment.

3. The at least one non-transitory computer usable medium of claim 1, wherein

the first segment header comprises a single field value specifying a processor core on a remote system;

and

the second segment header comprises a single field value specifying the processor on the remote system.

4. The at least one non-transitory computer usable medium of claim 1, wherein

the first segment header comprises a single field value specifying the location in the memory of the remote system of flow context data associated with the first segment;

and

the second segment header comprises a single field value specifying the location in the memory of the remote system of flow context data associated with the first segment.

5. The at least one non-transitory computer usable medium of claim 3, further comprising instructions to cause the device, when in operation to:

store the value specifying the processor core on the remote system in a memory with other flow state data associated with the first segment.

6. A local system, comprising logic to:

access a first Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) segment the first TCP segment having a first segment header, the first segment header comprising at least one of;

(1) a single field value specifying a processor core on a remote system, or (2) a single field value specifying a location in memory of a remote system of flow context data associated with the first segment; and

cause transmission of a second TCP segment from the local system, the second TCP segment having a second segment header, the second segment header comprising at least one of;

(1) the single field value specifying the processor core on the remote system, or (2) the single field value specifying the location in memory of the remote system of flow context data associated with the first segment.

7. The local system of claim 6, further comprising logic to, when in operation:

cause transmission of a third TCP segment from the local system, the third TCP segment having a third segment header, the third segment header comprising at least one of;

(1) a single field value specifying a processor core on the local system, or (2) a single field value specifying a location in memory of the local system of flow context data associated with the third segment; and

access a fourth TCP segment, the fourth TCP segment having a fourth segment header, the fourth segment header comprising at least one of;

(1) the single field value specifying the processor core on the local system, or (2) the single field value specifying the location in the memory of the local system of flow context data associated with the third segment.

8. The local system of claim 6, wherein

the first segment header comprises a single field value specifying a processor core on a remote system;

and

the second segment header comprises a single field value specifying the processor on the remote system.

9. The local system of claim 6, wherein

the first segment header comprises a single field value specifying the location in the memory of the remote system of flow context data associated with the first segment;

and

the second segment header comprises a single field value specifying the location in the memory of the remote system of flow context data associated with the first segment.

10. The local system of claim 6, wherein the logic comprises logic of a network interface controller.