System and method for virtualized receive descriptors

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2017353384-A1
Application number	US-201615170138-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Jun 1, 2016
Priority date	Jun 1, 2016
Publication date	Dec 7, 2017
Grant date	—

Abstract

In one embodiment, a system comprises a network interface controller to determine context information associated with a data packet. The network interface controller may select a receive descriptor profile from a plurality of receive descriptor profiles based upon a first portion of the context information and build a receive descriptor for the data packet based upon a second portion of the context information and the selected receive descriptor profile.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A system comprising:
a network interface controller to:
determine context information associated with a data packet;
select a receive descriptor profile from a plurality of receive descriptor profiles based upon a first portion of the context information; and
build a receive descriptor for the data packet based upon a second portion of the context information and the selected receive descriptor profile.

2 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the receive descriptor profile is specified by a virtual machine or a hypervisor.

3 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the receive descriptor profile is specified by an accelerator.

4 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the first portion of the context information comprises a destination queue selected based on the data packet.

5 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the first portion of the context information comprises information based on at least one identifier associated with a software entity to which the data packet is addressed.

6 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the receive descriptor profile is selected from multiple receive descriptor profiles that match the data packet.

7 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the receive descriptor profile is selected from multiple receive descriptor profiles based on a priority of the receive descriptor profile.

8 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the receive descriptor comprises an offset from the beginning of the data packet to a particular header of the data packet.

9 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the receive descriptor comprises metadata obtained by processing information included within the data packet.

10 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the network interface controller is further to send the data packet and the receive descriptor to a computing device across a wireless communication channel.

11 . A method comprising:
determining context information associated with a data packet; selecting a receive descriptor profile from a plurality of receive descriptor profiles based upon a first portion of the context information; and building a receive descriptor for the data packet based upon a second portion of the context information and the selected receive descriptor profile.

12 . The method of claim 11 , wherein the receive descriptor profile is specified by a virtual machine.

13 . The method of claim 11 , wherein the receive descriptor profile is specified by a hypervisor.

14 . The method of claim 11 , wherein the first portion of the context information comprises a destination queue selected based on the data packet.

15 . The method of claim 11 , wherein the first portion of the context information comprises information based on at least one identifier associated with a software entity to which the data packet is addressed.

16 . A system comprising:
at least one processor to:
execute instructions on behalf of a guest system;
generate a receive descriptor profile for the guest system; and
access a data packet and a receive descriptor associated with the data packet, the receive descriptor formed in accordance with the receive descriptor profile.

17 . The system of claim 16 , further comprising a network interface controller to build the receive descriptor based on the receive descriptor profile.

18 . The system of claim 16 , wherein the receive descriptor profile specifies data packet context information that is to be placed in receive descriptors built based on the receive descriptor profile.

19 . The system of claim 18 , wherein the receive descriptor profile specifies a format for the data packet context information.

20 . The system of claim 18 , wherein the receive descriptor profile specifies one or more selection criteria including information to be compared to information obtained from data packets to determine whether the receive descriptor profile matches the data packets.

21 . A method comprising:
executing instructions on behalf of a guest system; generating a receive descriptor profile for the guest system; and accessing a data packet and a receive descriptor associated with the data packet, the receive descriptor formed in accordance with the receive descriptor profile.

22 . The method of claim 21 , further comprising building the receive descriptor based on the receive descriptor profile.

23 . The method of claim 21 , wherein the receive descriptor profile specifies data packet context information that is to be placed in receive descriptors built based on the receive descriptor profile.

24 . The method of claim 23 , wherein the receive descriptor profile specifies a format for the data packet context information.

25 . The method of claim 23 , wherein the receive descriptor profile specifies one or more selection criteria including information to be compared to information obtained from data packets to determine whether the receive descriptor profile matches the data packets.

Assignees

• Intel Corp

Inventors

• Chayat Ronen
• Chilikin Andrey
• Browne John J

Classifications

• H04L45/566 Primary

  Routing instructions carried by the data packet, e.g. active networks · CPC title

• H04L69/22

  Parsing or analysis of headers · CPC title

• G06F2009/45595

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

• G06F9/45558 Primary

  Hypervisor-specific management and integration aspects · CPC title