Digital Equipment Corporation

Intel Corporation

Compaq Computer Corporation, Inc.

Cabletron Systems, Inc.

Other

Simoni Ben-Michael

Michael Ben-Nun

Kadangode K Ramakrishnan

Avraham Menachem

Moshe De-Leon

Ben-Zion Friedman

Philippe Klein

Peter J Roman

Tony Hurson

Shuki Perlman

Arvind Srinivasan

G Paul Koning

Yifat Ben-Shahar

Adam Conyers

Hemanth Krishnan

Sarit Shvimmer

Hormuzd M Khosravi

Eliezer Tamir

Men Long

Robert W Strong

Eliel Louzoun

James T Doyle

Lokpraveen B Mosur

Henry S Yang

Paritosh Saxena

Nicholas D Triantafillou

Paul J Thadikaran

Akshay Ramesh Kadam

Thomas J Schmidt

Paul S Schmitz

Edward J Pullin

Niamh Darcy

Lior Horwitz

Noam Avni

Richard J Heiler

Shirish S Sathaye

Gideon Paul

Larry Huppert

Brad W Stewart

Eitan Medina

Carol L Barrett

Simcha Perl

Aviad Werthimer

A transmitter can manage when a transmit queue is permitted to transmit and an amount of data permitted to be transmitted. After a transmit queue is permitted to transmit, the transmit queue can be placed in a sleep state if the transmit queue has exceeded its permitted data transmission quota. The wake time of the transmit queue can be scheduled based on a token accumulation rate for the transmit queue. The token accumulation rate can be increased if the transmit queue has other data to transmit after the data transmission. The token accumulation rate can be decreased if the transmit does not have other data to transmit.

Techniques to manage data transmissions

At a network-connected device, congestion at an egress queue can be detected. A potential source of congestion can be identified based on characteristics of a packet that caused the egress queue to become congested. The source of congestion can be a congestion group of transmitters. A group congestion message can be sent to the group of transmitters. The message can identify the packet that caused the egress queue to become congested. Transmitters can respond to the message by reducing their peak transmission rate.

Techniques to reduce network congestion

Examples described herein include configuration of a transmitting network device to identify a source queue-pair identifier in at least some of the packets that are transmitted to an endpoint destination. A network device that receives packets and experiences congestion can determine if a congestion causing packet includes a source queue-pair identifier. If the congestion causing packet includes a source queue-pair identifier, the network device can form and transmit a congestion notification message with a copy of the source queue-pair identifier to the transmitting network device. The transmitting network device can access a context for the congestion causing packet using the source queue-pair identifier without having to perform a lookup to identify the context.

Managing congestion in a network

Methods, apparatus, and systems for enhancing communication between compute resources and networks in a micro-server environment. Micro-server modules configured to be installed in a server chassis include a plurality of processor subsystems coupled in communication to a shared Network Interface Controller (NIC) via PCIe links. The shared NIC includes at least one Ethernet port and a PCIe block including a shared PCIe interface having a first number of lanes. The PCIe lines between the processor sub-systems and the shared PCIe interface employ a number of lanes that is less than the first number of lanes, and during operation of the micro-server module, the shared NIC is configured to enable each processor sub-system to access the at least one Ethernet port using the PCIe link between that processor sub-system and the shared PCIe block on the shared NIC.

Methods and apparatus for sharing a network interface controller

Techniques for a data storage device to locally implement security management functionality. In an embodiment, a security management process of the data storage device is to determine whether an access to non-volatile media of the data storage device is authorized. In certain embodiments, the data storage device is to restrict access to a secure region of the non-volatile storage media, the secure region to store information used and/or generated by a security management process of the data storage device.

Techniques for security management provisioning at a data storage device

A receiver to detect pulses on a home phone wiring network using envelope detection. The receiver comprises an integrating capacitor charged by a first current source responsive to a differential signal propagated on the wiring network, and discharged by a FET in combination with a second current source. The combination of the FET and the second current source allows the capacitor to be quickly discharged in a smooth fashion. An application of this receiver is for a PHY according to the Home Phoneline Networking Alliance.

Discharging envelope detector

A computer may have a management bus installed, where the management bus is coupled to sensors which monitor status of components of the computer. The management bus may also be coupled to a management bus processor, where the management bus processor receives status information from the management bus concerning status of components of the computer. An interface between the management bus and the network subsystem permits transmission of an error message in the event that the computer has a failure which inactivates the system CPU, the system bus, the system memory, or the system power supply.

Transmission of an error message over a network by a computer which

An apparatus for use in a computer has a network interface subsystem having power applied thereto when power is removed from other components of the computer. A receiver in the network interface subsystem receives a packet directed to the computer from the network, and in response to receipt of a selected packet, restores power to the other components of the computer. Upon restoration of power to the other components of the computer, a signalling device reports status of at least one of the other components of the computer to the network interface subsystem. A transmitter in the network interface subsystem sends, in response to the signalling device, a status packet onto the network giving a status of the computer in the event that a component is not functional, following restoration of power to the other components of the computer. The computer has a processor which executes a self test upon restoration of power to the processor, and a self test signalling device to signal to the network interface subsystem the results of the self test, to initiate transmission of a status packet by the network interface onto the network in the event that the computer fails the self test. The signalling device may be a management bus, and the management bus may operate under the I2C protocol. The receiver uses imperfect filtering to identify a wake up packet, and also may use a mask in performing imperfect filtering.

Computer with remote wake up and transmission of a status packet when

A method and related apparatus enables one station on a local area network (LAN) 24 to securely wake up another station on the LAN 24 although the stations may be physically remote from each other. A workstation 12, acting as a remote management console, generates a secure wake-up packet 42 intended for a desktop computer 14 on the LAN 24. The desktop computer 14 is operating in a sleep state. The data section of the secure wake-up packet has a particular sequence of data including a synchronization sequence 46, a MAC address sequence 48 and a password sequence 50. The desktop computer 14 has a network interface 64 for detecting and processing secure wake-up packets 70 when that network interface 64 is operating in a remote access control mode. The network interface 64 verifies that MAC address sequence 48 corresponds to the MAC address of the desktop computer 14 and that the password sequence 50 has a predetermined relationship with a password required to wake up the desktop computer 14. The network interface 64 issues a wake-up signal to wake up the desktop computer 14 when a valid secure wake-up packet is processed.

Method and apparatus for secure remote wake-up of a computer over a

A repeater device for forwarding a data packet from a first Ethernet collision domain to a second Ethernet collision domain has a plurality of ports, each port for connection to an independent Ethernet collision domain, each port has an associated receive buffer and an associated transmit buffer, and there is a means for forwarding a data packet from the receive buffer of a receiving port to the transmit buffer of a transmitting port. A data packet received at the receiving port is then first stored in that port's the receive buffer, is forwarded to the transmit buffer of the transmitting port, and is then transmitted from the transmit buffer by the transmitting port.

Buffered repeater with independent ethernet collision domains

A reliable and simple means to awaken sleeping computers is to maintain the network interface subsystem at full power, and to filter detected packets so that when desired packets are detected, full power is restored to the entire computer. An interface to connect a computer to a network is provided, where, the computer has a high power state and a low power state, and the computer is capable of normal operation when in the high power state, and the computer is substantially inactivated when in the low power state. A packet is received from the network. The packet is filtered by computing a hash function using at least one byte selected from the packet. A transition is initiated, responsive to a result of filtering the packet, to transition the computer from the low power state to the high power state. A mask may be used to select the at least one byte. Several bytes may be selected by the mask. A first register may be used to hold the mask. A second register may be used to hold a desired result of the hash function calculation. A result of the hash function calculation is compared with a contents of the second register to determine whether or not the result of the hash function calculation matches the contents of the second register. A perfect filtering or a second hash function filtering may be combined by AND or NOT logical operations, in making the decision whether or not to awaken the computer.

Wake up of a sleeping computer using I/O snooping and imperfect packet

A relatively small FIFO queue is located on a semiconductor chip receiving and transmitting data in a computer system, typically a computer network. The FIFO queue has additional storage capability in the form of an expansion into the local memory of the computer system. The front and back ends of the FIFO, which are involved in receiving and transmitting data, are implemented on the chip. The FIFO expands into the space provided in the local memory only when the on-chip portion of the FIFO is full. The middle portion of the FIFO resides in expansion in the local memory. The local memory is accessed only in bursts of multiple credits, both for read transactions and for write transactions.

Method and apparatus to expand an on chip FIFO into local memory

A repeater which introduces a minimum of delay in the transfer of a data packet from a source LAN to a destination LAN has an arbiter which grants access to a bus for a port to broadcast a received data packet onto the bus for loading the data packet into a transmit buffer for each outgoing port. The arbiter grants access only after all ports signal that their transmit buffers are ready to load the data packet from the bus. A transmit buffer signals that it is ready to be loaded at the passage of the collision window as it is transmitting a packet previously loaded into the transmit buffer. Accordingly, the transmit buffer is simultaneously transmitting the previously loaded packet and loading the new packet after the arbiter responds to the signal.

Method and apparatus for controlling transmission of data over a network

Automatic detection by a port of the type of device connected by a cable to the port is accomplished by transmitting a control packet by the device, where the control packet has a nonstandard format. The port examines received packets for the nonstandard format. Upon detection of a packet having the nonstandard format, the port recognizes that the source device of the packet is of a predetermined type which transmits control packets of the nonstandard format. Further, by choosing the nonstandard format so that typical forwarding devices will not forward the nonstandard packet, the port is assured that the source device is attached to the port by a cable. That is, by choosing a nonstandard packet which is not forwarded by a bridge or router, the port is assured that the packet has not been forwarded from a remote part of the network.

Automatic detection of a similar device at the other end of a wire in a

A method implemented by a computer network adapter for automatic retransmission of any packet involved in an unsuccessful transmission attempt due to transmit buffer underflow conditions entails the steps of (a) stopping the transmission; and (b) retrying another transmission of the packet for up to a predetermined number of attempts with an increased transmit threshold. The transmit threshold is the number of bytes of data of the packet involved in the transmission that are stored in the transmit buffer prior to start of transmission. Preferably, for the initial transmission attempt, the adapter requires only a small number of bytes of the packet to be stored in the transmit buffer. After occurrence of a buffer underflow condition, the adapter attempts a retry in accordance with the algorithm only after a substantially larger portion of the packet has entered the transmit buffer for transmission. If any retry succeeds, the adapter need not issue an interrupt.

Method implemented by a computer network adapter for autonomously

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Givat Zeev, Israel

Simoni Ben-Michael