Method and system for utilizing native ethernet as a virtual memory interconnect

• US 8,713,128 B2
• Filed: 02/22/2010
• Issued: 04/29/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 07/24/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Avago Technologies International Sales Pte Limited (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Broadcom Corporation (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Inventors: Teener, Michael Johas, Currivan, Bruce, Diab, Wael William, Karaoguz, Jeyhan, Kim, Yongbum, Ma, Kenneth
• Primary Examiner(s): Lazaro, David
• Assistant Examiner(s): KOROBOV, VITALI A
• Application Number:
  US12/710,168
• Publication Number:
  US 20110022679A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,527 Days
• Field of Search: 709/216, 709/217, 709/218, 709/223, 709/245, 370/389, 710/8
• US Class Current: 709/216
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1097 for distributed storage of data in networks, e.g. transport arrangements for network file system [NFS], storage area networks [SAN] or network attached storage [NAS]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/03 Protocol definition or specification protocol conformance testing H04L1/244

Abstract

In various embodiments of a method and system for utilizing native Ethernet as a virtual memory interconnect, a first networking device may be operable to transcode a memory read command and/or a memory write command to memory access information and encapsulate the memory access information within in one or more fields of an Ethernet frame. The memory access information may be communicated over an Ethernet link to a second networking device where it may be utilized to access memory that is associated with the memory read command and/or the memory write command. For example, the memory access information may indicate an address of the memory to be accessed, whether a read operation and/or a write operation is to be performed, whether the frame comprises data to be written to the memory, and/or whether a locally administered address space is utilized.

Claims

1. A method for networking, the method comprising:

performing by circuitry in a first networking device;

identifying a memory access command for accessing a virtual memory address;

translating the virtual memory address to a physical memory address;

determining that the physical memory address translated from the virtual memory address is within a memory of a second networking device, and in response;

transcoding the memory access command to memory access information;

encapsulating the memory access information in an Ethernet frame, wherein the memory access information is usable by the second networking device to perform the memory access command on the memory of the second networking device and wherein the memory access information indicates that the Ethernet frame is associated with a virtual memory access; and

communicating the Ethernet frame comprising the memory access information to the second networking device over an Ethernet link.

2. The method according to claim 1, comprising encapsulating the memory access information in one or more fields of the Ethernet frame, including:

a destination address field, an Ethertype field, a payload field, a transaction identification field, or a subtype field.

3. The method according to claim 2, wherein the destination address field indicates that a locally administered address space is utilized.

4. The method according to claim 1, wherein the memory access information indicates the physical memory address of the memory of the second networking device to be accessed by the memory access command.

5. The method according to claim 1, wherein the memory access information indicates whether the memory access command comprises a memory read command or a memory write command.

6. The method according to claim 1, wherein memory access information indicates whether the Ethernet frame comprises data to be written to the memory of the second networking device.

7. A system for networking, the system comprising:

circuitry operable to;

identify a memory access command for accessing a virtual memory address;

translate the virtual memory address to a physical memory address;

determine that the physical memory address translated from the virtual memory address is within a memory of a second networking device, and in response;

transcode the memory access command to memory access information;

encapsulate the memory access information in an Ethernet frame, wherein the memory access information is usable by the second networking device to perform the memory access command on the memory of the second networking device and wherein the memory access information indicates that the Ethernet frame is associated with a virtual memory access; and

communicate the Ethernet frame comprising the memory access information to the second networking device over an Ethernet link.

8. The system according to claim 7, where the circuitry is operable to encapsulate the memory access information in one or more fields of the Ethernet frame, including:

a destination address field, an Ethertype field, a payload field, a transaction identification field, or a subtype field.

9. The system according to claim 8, wherein the destination address field indicates that a locally administered address space is utilized.

10. The system according to claim 7, wherein the memory access information indicates the physical memory address of the memory of the second networking device to be accessed by the memory access command.

11. The system according to claim 7, wherein the memory access information indicates whether the memory access command comprises a memory read command or a memory write command.

12. The system according to claim 7, wherein the memory access information indicates whether the Ethernet frame comprises data to be written to the memory of the second networking device.