NETWORK CONTROLLER BASED PASS-THROUGH COMMUNICATION MECHANISM BETWEEN LOCAL HOST AND MANAGEMENT CONTROLLER

摘要

A network controller in a communication device may be operable to route local host-management traffic between a local host and a management controller within the communication device, wherein the local host may be operable to utilize its network processing resources and function during communication of the local host-management traffic. A dedicated management port may be configured in the network controller to enable receiving and/or transmitting local host-management traffic communicated from and/or to the local host separate from the local host's network traffic communicated via the network controller. The host-management traffic is communicated between the network controller and the management controller via NC-SI interface. The management controller may be assigned Internet protocol (IP) based addressing information for use during routing of local host-management traffic. The IP addressing information may be preset statically, assigned automatically from a list of available addresses, or configured dynamically via a DHCP server function.