Mechanisms for deadlock avoidance support in network fabrics

摘要

Disclosed herein is a method for deadlock avoidance in a network comprising partitioning in a module, a set of virtual lanes into deadlock avoidance virtual channels; where each deadlock avoidance virtual channel comprises a plurality of virtual lanes; assigning each incoming packet at the module to one of the deadlock avoidance virtual channels, and within the deadlock avoidance virtual channel to a virtual lane whose relative index corresponds to an absolute index of the virtual lane the packet would have been assigned to if the network was not provisioned with deadlock avoidance virtual channels; and transitioning each packet as it traverses the module from one deadlock avoidance virtual channel to another deadlock avoidance virtual channel when a deadlock avoidance policy so demands it.

主权项

1. A method for avoiding deadlock in a network comprising:
a virtual channel policy module of a network adaptor partitioning one or more incoming service lanes into N service lanes, wherein each of the N service lanes comprises a corresponding service lane to virtual lane policy module of the network adaptor, where N is a positive integer; the virtual channel policy module of the network adaptor partitioning the N service lanes into K deadlock avoidance virtual channels, wherein each deadlock avoidance virtual channel comprises M virtual lanes, and wherein K and M are independent positive integers; the virtual channel policy module of the network adaptor assigning each incoming packet at the network adaptor to one of K deadlock avoidance virtual channels, and within the deadlock avoidance virtual channel to a virtual lane whose relative index corresponds to an absolute index of the service lane the packet would have been assigned to if the network was not provisioned with K deadlock avoidance virtual channels; and the virtual channel policy module of the network adaptor transitioning each packet as it traverses the network adaptor from one deadlock avoidance virtual channel to another deadlock avoidance virtual channel when a deadlock avoidance policy so demands it.