Method and apparatus for processing received network packets on a network interface for a computer

摘要

An intelligent network interface card (INIC) or communication processing device (CPD) works with a host computer for data communication. The device provides a fast-path that avoids protocol processing for most messages, greatly accelerating data transfer and offloading time-intensive processing tasks from the host CPU. The host retains a fallback processing capability for messages that do not fit fast-path criteria, with the device providing assistance such as validation even for slow-path messages, and messages being selected for either fast-path or slow-path processing. A context for a connection is defined that allows the device to move data, free of headers, directly to or from a destination or source in the host. The context can be passed back to the host for message processing by the host. The device contains specialized hardware circuits that are much faster at their specific tasks than a general purpose CPU. A preferred embodiment includes a trio of pipelined processors devoted to transmit, receive and utility processing, providing full duplex communication for four Fast Ethernet nodes.

主权项

1. A method for data communication by a host computer that is connected to a network interface by an input/output (I/O) bus, the method comprising:
receiving, by the network interface, a network packet including an Internet Protocol (IP) header, a Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) header and an upper layer header, wherein the upper layer header corresponds to a protocol above TCP; analyzing, by the network interface, the IP header, the TCP header, and the upper layer header, including decoding, by the network interface, the upper layer header to determine a length of data being received; associating the packet with a TCP control block (TCB) that is being maintained on the network interface; and transferring, from the network interface to the host computer, data from the packet directly to the host memory, without transferring the TCP header from the network interface to the host computer.