Switching methods and systems for a network interface card

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9800524-B1
Application number	US-201514864323-A
Country	US
Kind code	B1
Filing date	Sep 24, 2015
Priority date	Sep 24, 2015
Publication date	Oct 24, 2017
Grant date	Oct 24, 2017

Abstract

Methods and systems for network communication are provided. One method includes, receiving a network packet at a first network interface card (NIC) operationally coupled to a computing device; identifying a second NIC as a destination for the network packet; placing the network packet by the first NIC at a host memory location, without utilizing resources of a processor of the computing device; notifying the second NIC that the network packet has been placed at the host memory location; retrieving the network packet by the second NIC from the host memory location; transmitting the network packet by the second NIC to another destination; notifying the first NIC by the second NIC that the packet has been transmitted by the second NIC; and freeing the host memory location by the first NIC.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A machine implemented method, comprising:
receiving a network packet at a first network interface card (NIC) operationally coupled to a computing device;
identifying a second NIC as a destination for the network packet;
placing the network packet by the first NIC at a host memory location, without utilizing resources of a processor of the computing device;
notifying the second NIC that the network packet has been placed at the host memory location;
retrieving the network packet by the second NIC from the host memory location;
transmitting the network packet by the second NIC to another destination;
notifying the first NIC by the second NIC that the packet has been transmitted by the second NIC; and
freeing the host memory location by the first NIC.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
freeing up space at a send queue used for notifying the second NIC that the network packet has been placed at the host memory.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first NIC and the second NIC are coupled to the computing device using a PCI-Express link.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first NIC and the second NIC use an Ethernet based networking protocol for network communication.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first NIC and the second NIC are converged network adapters that can process both network and storage traffic.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first NIC maintains a data structure to determine that the second NIC is the destination for the network packet.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the computing device processes the network packet when a flow associated with the network packet is not offloaded to the first NIC.

8. A non-transitory, machine readable storage medium having stored thereon instructions for performing a method, comprising machine executable code which when executed by at least one machine, causes the machine to:
receive a network packet at a first network interface card (NIC) operationally coupled to a computing device;
identify a second NIC as a destination for the network packet;
place the network packet by the first NIC at a host memory location, without utilizing resources of a processor of the computing device;
notify the second NIC that the network packet has been placed at the host memory location;
retrieve the network packet by the second NIC from the host memory location;
transmit the network packet by the second NIC to another destination;
notify the first NIC by the second NIC that the packet has been transmitted by the second NIC; and
free the host memory location by the first NIC.

9. The non-transitory, storage medium of claim 8 , further causing the machine to:
free up space at a send queue used for notifying the second NIC that the network packet has been placed at the host memory.

10. The non-transitory, storage medium of claim 8 , wherein the first NIC and the second NIC are coupled to the computing device using a PCI-Express link.

11. The non-transitory, storage medium of claim 8 , wherein the first NIC and the second NIC use an Ethernet based networking protocol for network communication.

12. The non-transitory, storage medium of claim 8 , wherein the first NIC and the second NIC are converged network adapters that can process both network and storage traffic.

13. The non-transitory, storage medium of claim 8 , wherein the first NIC maintains a data structure to determine that the second NIC is the destination for the network packet.

14. The non-transitory, storage medium of claim 8 , wherein the computing device processes the network packet when a flow associated with the network packet is not offloaded to the first NIC.

15. A system comprising:
a computing device having a processor for executing instructions out of a host memory device and coupled to a first network interface card (NIC) and a second NIC;
wherein the first NIC receives a network packet at the first network interface card (NIC) operationally coupled to a computing device; identifies the second NIC as a destination for the network packet; places the network packet at a host memory location, without utilizing resources of the processor of the computing device; and notifies the second NIC that the network packet has been placed at the host memory location; and
wherein the second NIC retrieves the network packet from the host memory location; transmits the network packet to another destination; notifies the first NIC that the packet has been transmitted by the second NIC; and the first NIC frees the host memory location.

16. The system of claim 15 , wherein the first NIC frees up space at a send queue used for notifying the second NIC that the network packet has been placed at the host memory.

17. The system of claim 15 , wherein the first NIC and the second NIC are coupled to the computing device using a PCI-Express link.

18. The system of claim 15 , wherein the first NIC and the second NIC use an Ethernet based networking protocol for network communication.

19. The system of claim 15 , wherein the first NIC and the second NIC are converged network adapters that can process both network and storage traffic.

20. The system of claim 15 , wherein the first NIC maintains a data structure to determine that the second NIC is the destination for the network packet for network communication.

21. The system of claim 15 , wherein the computing device processes the network packet when a flow associated with the network packet is not offloaded to the first NIC.

Assignees

• Qlogic Corp

Inventors

• Goren Nir

Classifications

• H04L49/9078 Primary

  using an external memory or storage device · CPC title

• H04L67/2842

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H04L67/568

  Storing data temporarily at an intermediate stage, e.g. caching · CPC title

• H04L69/321

  Interlayer communication protocols or service data unit [SDU] definitions; Interfaces between layers · CPC title