Sun Microsystems, Inc.

Apple Inc.

Francesco DiMambro

Asif H Haswarey

Anil Umarshi Visariya

Cahya Adi Masputra

David M Kahn

Sumanth R Kamatala

Systems, devices and methods for improving network performance are disclosed. In particular, in one embodiment, a method of processing data packets in an electronic network is provided. The method includes receiving data packets at a receive stack of an electronic network device and creating a first packet from at least a portion of each of the set of data packets. The first packet includes an indicator that the first packet is a first packet type. Additionally, the method includes passing the first packet to one of a bridge and IP layer of the receive stack. A first packet inhibitor at the one of the bridge and IP layer is bypassed upon recognizing the first packet as a first packet type. The first packet is routed to a transmit stack of the electronic network device from the one of the bridge and IP layer.

Data routing acceleration

Systems, devices and methods for improving network performance are disclosed. In particular, in one embodiment, a method of processing data packets in an electronic network is provided. The method includes receiving data packets at a receive stack of an electronic network device and creating a first packet from at least a portion of each of the set of data packets. The first packet includes an indicator that the first packet is a first packet type. The creation of the first packet includes saving a first header of the plurality of data packets, modifying the first header with information from each of the set of data packets, and concatenating the set of data packets.

Accelerating data routing

A system and method for virtualizing a hardware device node for a network interface circuit or other device. In a clone driver's configuration file, multiple virtual or clone nodes are defined. Their major numbers match the major number of the driver, but a virtual node's minor number for a Style 2 driver is calculated from the hardware driver's major number and the instance or port number of the corresponding hardware node. By creating multiple clone nodes, multiple paths through the protocol stack are created. Each one can be configured differently (e.g., for different MTU sizes), and each may be assigned a different address (e.g., MAC address). The separate addresses may be registered with hardware filters to filter incoming packets at the hardware level. A traffic classifier created in the device driver manages each virtual node's association with a hardware filter.

Virtual cloned device node

A kernel data transfer method and system for transmitting multiple packets of data in a single block of data presented by application programs to the kernel's network subsystem for processing in accordance with data transfer parameters set by the application program. The multi-packet transmit system includes logic that allows header information of the multiple packets of data to be generated in a single buffer and appended to a second buffer containing the data packets to be transmitted through the network stack. The multi-data transmit system allows a device driver to amortize the input/output memory management related overhead across a number of packets. With some assistance from the network stack, the device driver needs to only perform the necessary IOMMU operations on two contiguous memory blocks representing the header information and the data payload of multiple packets during each transmit call.

System and method for a multi-packet data link layer data transmission

A system and method for improving the efficiency with which data communications are passed through a protocol stack. Protocol layer modules within a protocol stack built upon the Streams framework are modified to establish tight embraces between adjacent modules. A tight embrace may be established by passing from one, upper, protocol layer module to its adjacent lower protocol layer module a pointer or reference to the upper module's functionality (e.g., rput) for reading a data communication into the upper module from the lower module. Similarly, the lower module passes the upper module a pointer or reference to its functionality (e.g., wput) for writing a data communication into the lower module from the upper module. After a tight embrace is established, the protocol layer modules can directly invoke each other's functionality, without incurring the overhead associated with the Streams framework's 'canputnext' and 'putnext' messages.

System and method for eliminating Streams framework overhead in data communications

A method and apparatus for facilitating transfer of packets from communication hardware to a host computing device or software. After receiving s set of packets at a communication interface, the system writes in a hybrid buffer a type II completion line configured to identify a payload buffer in which payloads of packets are stored. For each packet, the system writes a type I completion line configured to indicate the length of a packet's header in the hybrid buffer and the length and/or offset of the packet's payload in the payload buffer. A type 0 completion line indicates that no more packets are stored in the payload buffer. The system then signals the host computing device by configuring a single completion descriptor to identify the hybrid buffer in which the completion lines are stored. The host computing device reads the single completion descriptor to process the packets.

Method and apparatus for transferring multiple packets from hardware

A system and method for describing multiple packets to a communication module or device without requiring descriptors for each packet. A device driver for the communication apparatus receives a set of packet headers and a set of packet payloads from an upper layer protocol. The headers may be received in a header buffer, and the payloads may be received in a separate data buffer. Or, the packets may be received, in assembled form, in a single buffer. The device driver configures a single descriptor to describe the multiple packets to the communication apparatus. The descriptor includes base address(es) of the buffer(s) in which the headers, payloads or assembled packets are stored, and the lengths of the individual headers, payloads or assembled packets. If the buffer contents are not packed, the descriptor may also include offsets of the headers, payloads or packets.

Method and apparatus for describing multiple packets to hardware

An apparatus and method for expeditiously steering a received communication (e.g., packet, cell, frame) to one or more communication streams. When a new communication stream is opened on a network interface circuit or other Primary Point of Attachment (PPA), the protocol to which the stream is bound is used as a Service Access Point (SAP). A hierarchy of SAP nodes (e.g., a binary tree) is constructed, with each node corresponding to a unique SAP. Each node includes its corresponding SAP value, a count of the number of communication streams bound to the associated protocol, and a reference to those streams. When a communication is received, its SAP is extracted and the hierarchy is searched for a matching node. The communication is then forwarded to each referenced stream.

Apparatus and method for steering a communication to an open stream

An enhanced VPD structure includes a type field to indicate whether a particular property is a general property to be associated with an interface card or other computer system component, or a device- or function-specific property to be associated with one or more devices or functions. The enhanced VPD structure also includes fields for identifying the device(s) and/or function(s) to which a device- or function-specific property applies, along with the value of the property, a data type and length of the property, and a meaningful name of the property. The enhanced VPD structure may be accessed during system boot, during hot-swapping of an interface card or other component, or at other times.

Enhanced VPD (Vital Product Data) structure

A system and method for persisting device operating parameters through different phases of the boot process of a computer system. A boot command is entered to boot from a remote (or local) source through a boot device (e.g., a network interface, a disk controller), and is accompanied by one or more operating parameters (e.g., speed, duplex, link-clock). The parameters are converted to properties of the boot device and saved. Subsequently, one or more communication connections are established using the boot device properties. Using an initial boot program, the system may establish a first connection to access and load a secondary boot program, and another connection to load an operating system kernel. The boot device properties are thus used to establish communication connections at different times in the boot process, while the system is controlled by different programs (e.g., open boot PROM, secondary boot program, operating system kernel).

System and method for device parameter persistence

A system and method for distributing a portion of the processing of a received packet among a plurality of service threads. When an ISR or similar process retrieves a packet from a communication interface via a receive descriptor ring, it places the packet on one of a plurality of service queues. Each queue has an associated service thread or process that initiates upper layer protocol processing for queued packets. The ISR may select a particular service queue based on the packet's communication flow or connection. Alternatively, the ISR may use a processor identifier provided by the communication interface to select a queue (e.g., in a multi-processor computer system). Or, other information provided by the interface may be used.

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San Jose, CA, United States of America

Francesco DiMambro