Apparatus and computer program product for handling network packets using a pipeline of elements

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9294386-B2
Application number	US-201314023624-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 11, 2013
Priority date	Jun 15, 1998
Publication date	Mar 22, 2016
Grant date	Mar 22, 2016

Abstract

Apparatus and computer program product for a programmable packet processing platform for accelerating network infrastructure applications that have been structured so as to separate the stages of classification and action. A pipeline comprising a collection of elements for handling network packets is established under which respective elements are capable of including multiple entries, and respective entries are capable of defining whether the respective entry matches a respective network packet and at least one corresponding action for handling the respective network packet. Defining whether the respective entry matches a respective network packet comprises defining via a predefined set of identifiers to indicate respective network protocol fields of different network protocols. Exemplary actions include dropping packets, forwarding packets, encrypting packets, decrypting packets, and classification of packet flows.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A computer program product, disposed on a tangible non-transitory computer readable storage medium, the product comprising instructions for causing an apparatus including at least one processor to:
establish a pipeline for handling network packets, the pipeline comprising a collection of elements, respective elements capable of including multiple entries, respective entries capable of defining whether the respective entry matches a respective network packet and at least one corresponding action for handling the respective network packet, wherein the defining whether the respective entry matches a respective network packet comprises defining via a predefined set of identifiers to indicate respective network protocol fields of different network protocols, wherein the at least one corresponding action is capable to, at least one of, (1) cause the pipeline to drop a respective network packet and (2) cause the pipeline to forward the respective network packet to a network destination; and
process network packets in accordance with the pipeline.

2. The tangible non-transitory computer program of claim 1 , wherein the at least one corresponding action comprises an action to modify contents of a network packet.

3. The tangible non-transitory computer program of claim 1 , wherein the predefined set of identifiers comprise identifiers corresponding to Ethernet frames, Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) segments, and Internet Protocol (IP) datagrams.

4. The tangible non-transitory computer program of claim 1 , wherein the at least one action comprises an action to encrypt a network packet.

5. The tangible non-transitory computer program of claim 1 , wherein the pipeline comprises a pipeline having elements capable of having more than one output arc to different pipeline elements.

6. The tangible non-transitory computer program of claim 1 , wherein the at least one action comprises an action to decrypt an encrypted network packet.

7. The tangible non-transitory computer program of claim 1 , wherein the at least one processor includes at least one embedded processor.

8. A network device, comprising:
multiple media access controllers (MACs); and
at least one embedded processor to establish a pipeline for handling network packets based on received signals, the pipeline comprising a collection of elements, respective elements capable of including multiple entries, respective entries capable of defining whether the respective entry matches a respective network packet and at least one corresponding action for handling the respective network packet, wherein the defining whether the respective entry matches a respective network packet comprises defining via a predefined set of identifiers to indicate respective network protocol fields of different network protocols, wherein the at least one corresponding action is capable to, at least one of, (1) cause the pipeline to drop a respective network packet, and (2) cause the pipeline to forward the respective network packet to a network destination; and
process network packets in accordance with the pipeline.

9. The network device of claim 8 , wherein the network device further comprises at least one cryptographic accelerator.

10. The network device of claim 8 , wherein the at least one corresponding action comprises an action to modify contents of a network packet.

11. The network device of claim 8 , wherein the predefined set of identifiers comprise identifiers corresponding to Ethernet frames, Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) segments, and Internet Protocol (IP) datagrams.

12. The network device of claim 8 , wherein the at least one action comprises an action to encrypt a network packet.

13. The network device of claim 8 , wherein the pipeline comprises a pipeline having elements capable of having more than one output arc to different pipeline elements.

14. The network device of claim 8 , wherein the at least one processor to establish the pipeline comprises at least one processor to receive, from a different processor, modifications with respect to processing of the respective network packets.

Assignees

• Intel Corp

Inventors

• Narad Charles E

Classifications

• H04L49/90

  Buffering arrangements · CPC title

• H04L47/10 Primary

  Flow control; Congestion control · CPC title

• H04L9/40

  Network security protocols · CPC title

• H04L45/16 Primary

  Multipoint routing · CPC title

• H04L69/03

  Protocol definition or specification  (protocol conformance testing H04L1/244) · CPC title