On-premises network interface adapted for cloud-based services

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12468564-B1
Application number	US-202217956585-A
Country	US
Kind code	B1
Filing date	Sep 29, 2022
Priority date	Sep 29, 2022
Publication date	Nov 11, 2025
Grant date	Nov 11, 2025

Abstract

Cloud services, such as a storage service, are able to communicate through a virtual PCI request over a non-PCI bus by using a modified device driver that communicates with a network interface. One or more cloud services can execute on a same board or within a same Integrated Circuit (IC) as the network interface. The network interface adapts communications from the one or more services by allowing the services to use a PCI protocol despite that the services are not communicating with the network interface over a PCI bus.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A method of executing a service within a server computer, the method comprising:
executing the service of a compute service provider using a processor within the server computer; transmitting a request to a device driver executed by the processor; using the device driver, storing the request in a base address register of a network interface positioned between the service and a host that executes a virtual machine without transferring the request over a Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) bus; and using control logic in the network interface, reading the request from the base address register and transmitting the request towards a destination address.

2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the processor and the network interface are on a network interface card within the server computer.

3 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the service is a storage service.

4 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the host is coupled to the network interface using a PCI bus.

5 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the network interface is assigned an Internet Protocol (IP) address and is attached to the virtual machine.

6 . A method, comprising:
receiving a request from a service of a compute service provider for transmission over a Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) bus; receiving the request in a device driver that stores the request in a base address register of a network interface without transmitting the request over a PCI bus; and processing the request by the network interface as if it were received over a PCI bus.

7 . The method of claim 6 , wherein the service executes on a processor that is positioned on a same printed circuit board as the network interface.

8 . The method of claim 6 , further including executing a virtual machine on a host that is coupled to the network interface through a PCI bus.

9 . The method of claim 8 , wherein the service is a storage service that attaches volumes to the virtual machine.

10 . The method of claim 6 , wherein the service is a storage service and the method further includes using the network interface to store data associated with the PCI request in a memory of the storage service.

11 . The method of claim 6 , wherein the network interface is assigned an Internet Protocol (IP) address.

12 . The method of claim 6 , wherein the device driver uses a write command to write the request to the base address registers of the network interface.

13 . The method of claim 6 , wherein the request is an Application Programming Interface (API) request to be transmitted over a PCI bus.

14 . The method of claim 6 , wherein the processing of the request includes generating a PCI request corresponding to the request and transmitting the PCI request to a host over a PCI bus.

15 . A server computer, comprising:
a host; a network interface coupled to the host using a first bus type; a processor couped to the network interface through a second bus type, the processor configured to execute a service of a compute service provider; and a device driver configured to execute on the processor and to receive messages from the service that are for transmission over the first bus type and storing the messages in a memory of the network interface using the second bus type.

16 . The server computer of claim 15 , wherein first bus type is a Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) bus and the second bus type is an internal bus on a plug-in board on the server computer.

17 . The server computer of claim 15 , wherein the memory of the network interface includes base address registers of the network interface.

18 . The server computer of claim 15 , wherein the service is a storage service and the host is configured to execute virtual machines coupled to storage volumes of the storage service.

19 . The server computer of claim 15 , the network interface includes an Internet Protocol (IP) address and is logically attached to a virtual machine executing on the host.

20 . The server computer of claim 15 , wherein the service executes on the processor that is positioned on a same printed circuit board as the network interface.

Assignees

• Amazon Tech Inc

Inventors

• Schmeilin Evgeny

Classifications

• G06F13/4282

  on a serial bus, e.g. I2C bus, SPI bus (on daisy chain buses G06F13/4247) · CPC title

• G06F2213/0024

  Peripheral component interconnect [PCI] · CPC title

• G06F9/45558 Primary

  Hypervisor-specific management and integration aspects · CPC title

• G06F2009/45595

  Network integration; Enabling network access in virtual machine instances · CPC title

• G06F2009/45579

  I/O management, e.g. providing access to device drivers or storage · CPC title