System and method for network interfacing in a multiple network environment

0001This application makes reference to, claims priority to and claims benefit from United States Provisional Patent Application Serial No. <patcit id="pcit0001" dnum="US60477279B"><text>60/477,279</text></patcit>, entitled "System and Method for Network Interfacing in a Multiple Network Environment" and filed on June 10, 2003; United States Provisional Patent Application Serial No. <patcit id="pcit0002" dnum="US60478106B"><text>60/478,106</text></patcit>, entitled "System and Method for Network Interfacing" and filed on June 11, 2003; United States Provisional Patent Application Serial No. <patcit id="pcit0003" dnum="US60408617B"><text>60/408,617</text></patcit>, entitled "System and Method for TCP/IP Offload" and filed on September 6, 2002; United States Provisional Patent Application Serial No. <patcit id="pcit0004" dnum="US60407165B"><text>60/407,165</text></patcit>, entitled "System and Method for TCP Offload" and filed on August 30, 2002; United States Provisional Patent Application Serial No. <patcit id="pcit0005" dnum="US60456265B"><text>60/456,265</text></patcit>, entitled "System and Method for TCP Offload" and filed on March 30, 2003; United States Provisional Patent Application Serial No. <patcit id="pcit0006" dnum="US60456260B"><text>60/456,260</text></patcit>, entitled "System and Method for Handling Out-of-Order Frames" and filed on March 20, 2003; United States Provisional Patent Application Serial No. <patcit id="pcit0007" dnum="US60410022B"><text>60/410,022</text></patcit>, entitled "System and Method for TCP Offloading and Uploading" and filed on September 11, 2002; United States Patent Application Serial No. <patcit id="pcit0008" dnum="US10298817B"><text>10/298,817</text></patcit>, entitled "System and Method for TCP Offloading and Uploading" and filed on November 18, 2002; United States Provisional Patent Application Serial No. <patcit id="pcit0009" dnum="US60411294B"><text>60/411,294</text></patcit>, entitled "System and Method for Handling Partially Processed Frames" and filed on September 17, 2002; United States Patent Application Serial No. <patcit id="pcit0010" dnum="US10302474B"><text>10/302,474</text></patcit>, entitled "System and Method for Handling Frames in Multiple Stack Environments" and filed on November 21, 2002; United States Provisional Patent Application Serial No. <patcit id="pcit0011" dnum="US60408207B"><text>60/408,207</text></patcit>, entitled "System and Method for Fault Tolerant TCP Offload" and filed on September 4, 2002; United States Patent Application Serial No. <patcit id="pcit0012" dnum="US10337029B"><text>10/337,029</text></patcit>, entitled "System and Method for Fault Tolerant TCP Offload" and filed on January 6, 2003; United States Provisional Patent Application Serial No.<patcit id="pcit0013" dnum="US60405539B"><text> 60/405,539</text></patcit>, entitled "Remote Direct Memory Access over TCP/IP using Generic Buffers for Non-Posting TCP" and filed on August 23, 2002; United States Provisional Patent Application Serial No. <patcit id="pcit0014" dnum="US60398663B"><text>60/398,663</text></patcit>, entitled "Dual TCP/IP Stacks Connection Management for Winsock Direct (WSD)" and filed on July 26, 2002; United States Provisional Patent Application Serial No. <patcit id="pcit0015" dnum="US60434503B"><text>60/434,503</text></patcit>, entitled "System and Method for Handling Multiple Stack Environments" and filed on December 18, 2002; United States Patent Application Serial No. <patcit id="pcit0016" dnum="US10336983B"><text>10/336,983</text></patcit>, entitled "System and Method for Handling Multiple Stack Environments" and filed on January 6, 2003; United States Provisional Patent Application Serial No. <patcit id="pcit0017" dnum="US60403817B"><text>60/403,817</text></patcit>, entitled "One Shot RDMA Having Only a 2 Bit State" and filed on August 14, 2002; United States Provisional Patent Application Serial No. <patcit id="pcit0018" dnum="US60404709B"><text>60/404,709</text></patcit>, entitled "Optimizing RDMA for Storage Applications" and filed on August 19, 2002; United States Patent Application Serial No. <patcit id="pcit0019" dnum="US60419354B"><text>60/419:354</text></patcit>, entitled "System and Method for Statistical Provisioning" and filed on October 18, 2002; United States Patent Application Serial No. <patcit id="pcit0020" dnum="US60420901B"><text>60/420,901</text></patcit>, entitled "System and Method for Statistical Provisioning" and filed on October 24, 2002; United States Patent Application Serial No. <patcit id="pcit0021" dnum="US60439951B"><text>60/439,951</text></patcit>, entitled "System and Method for Statistical Provisioning" and filed on January 14, 2003; United States Patent Application Serial No. <patcit id="pcit0022" dnum="US60442360B"><text>60/442,360</text></patcit>, entitled "System and Method for Statistical Provisioning" and filed on January 24, 2003; United States Provisional Patent Application Serial No. <patcit id="pcit0023" dnum="US60425959B"><text>60/425,959</text></patcit>, entitled "Joint Memory Management for User Space and Storage" and filed on November 12, 2002; United States Provisional Patent Application Serial No. <patcit id="pcit0024" dnum="US60456266B"><text>60/456,266</text></patcit>, entitled "Self-Describing Transport Protocol Segments" and filed on March 20, 2003; United States Provisional Patent Application Serial No. <patcit id="pcit0025" dnum="US60437887B"><text>60/437,887</text></patcit>, entitled "Header Alignment and Complete PDU" and filed on January 2, 2003; 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FIELD OF THE INVENTION

0002Certain embodiments of the invention relate to network interfaces. More specifically, certain embodiments of the invention relate to a method and system for network interfacing in a multiple networking environment.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

0003<figref idref="f0001">FIG. 1</figref> shows a server 100 adapted to handle five types of network traffic. The first type of network traffic is typical network traffic such as, for example, common Ethernet network traffic including Internet protocol(IP) or other layer 3 (L3) technologies transporting small amounts of data and control information around the network. The first type of network traffic is handled by a first network traffic system including an Ethernet connector 110; a layer 2 (L2) network interface card(NIC) arrangement 120 including an L2 NIC 130; a peripheral component interconnect(PCI) bridge 140; an L2 NIC driver 150; a full-feature software transmission control protocol (TCP) stack 160; a socket service switch 170; and a socket service 180. The full-feature software TCP stack 160 supports socket services as well as other services.

0004The second type of network traffic is TCP accelerated traffic such as, for example, TCP running on top of IP. The protocol is used to move large data across conventional Ethernet networks. The server 100 offloads the TCP portion of the network traffic, thereby freeing server resources for running non-networking tasks. The second type of network traffic is handled by a second network traffic system including a TCP offload engine (TOE) that accelerates TCP traffic. The second network traffic system includes an Ethernet connector 190; a layer 4 (L4) offload adapter arrangement 200 including an L2 NIC 210 and a TCP processor 220; the PCI bridge 140; an L4 driver 230; the socket service switch 170; and the socket service 180. The TCP accelerated traffic is typically serviced by the socket service 180.

0005The third type of network traffic is storage traffic. Conventional storage systems use small computer system interface (SCSI) or Fibre Channel technologies to connect the server 100 to storage disks. Both of these technologies share a common software interface or service, namely SCSI miniport. Recently, a protocol has been developed that provides SCSI traffic to be run over a TCP/IP network. The recent protocol removes the need for SCSI or Fibre Channel network connections, thereby allowing the storage traffic to be run over the same network as used for networking (e.g., Ethernet). The third type of network traffic is handled by a third network traffic system including an adapter that implements the recent protocol and provides SCSI miniport service. The third network traffic system includes an Ethernet connector 240; a storage host bus adapter (HBA) arrangement 250 including an L2 NIC 260, a TCP processor 270 and an internet SCSI (iSCSI) processor 280; the PCI bridge 140; a SCSI driver 290; and a SCSI miniport service 300.

0006The fourth type of network traffic is interprocess communication (IPC) traffic. This type of network allows programs running on different servers to communicate quickly and with very low overhead. IPC networks are used with, for example, distributed applications, database servers and file servers. For example, IPC networks can be used when the computing power needed exceeds the capacity of a particular server or when multiple servers are used for ultra-reliable operation. This type of service is provided through a remote direct memory access (RDMA) interface (e.g., Winsock Direct) that directly interfaces with applications. The fourth type of network traffic is handled by a fourth network traffic system including an adapter that provides services as a dedicated, proprietary network (e.g., Infiniband products). The fourth network traffic system includes a proprietary network interface 310; an RDMA NIC arrangement 320 including an L2 NIC 330, an L4 processor and an RDMA processor 340; the PCI bridge 140; an RDMA driver 350; and an RDMA service 360 (e.g., Winsock Direct).

0007The fifth type of network traffic is any traffic relating to any type of operating system (OS) Agnostic Management Entity or device. These entities or devices monitor the state of the server 100 and transmit information relating to state and statistical values over the network. The fifth type of network traffic is handled by a fifth network traffic system that includes an Ethernet connector 370; a server management agent 380; and a keyboard/video/mouse service 390. The fifth network traffic system provides keyboard, video and mouse hardware services to the server 100 so that these interfaces can be redirected over the network to a central server management system.

0008The five network traffic systems supported by the server 100 use a substantial amount of space within the server and are typically quite costly. Combining the five types of networks is hindered on a number of fronts. For example, many operating systems insist that each connector have its own driver. Accordingly, each of the five network traffic systems has its own data and control paths. Furthermore, the use of proprietary network interfaces minimizes the possibility of integration. Thus, a number of hardware and software redundancies and inefficiencies remain.

0009Further limitations and disadvantages of conventional and traditional approaches will become apparent to one of skill in the art, through comparison of such systems with some aspects of the present invention as set forth in the remainder of the present application with reference to the drawings.

0010<patcit id="pcit0028" dnum="US2001023460A"><text>US 2001/023460</text></patcit> discloses a system for protocol processing in a computer network which has an intelligent network interface card (INIC) or communication processing device (CPD) associated with a host computer. The INIC assists the host for those message packets that are chosen for processing by host software layers. A communication control block for a message is defined that allows DMA controllers of the INIC to move data, free of headers, directly to or from a destination or source in the host. The context is stored in the INIC as a communication control block (CCB) that can be passed back to the host for message processing by the host. The INIC contains specialized hardware circuits that are much faster at their specific tasks than a general purpose CPU.

0011<patcit id="pcit0029" dnum="US6253334B2"><text>US-B2-6 253 334</text></patcit> deals with providing a fault-tolerant computer system which includes a processor and a memory, connected to a system bus. The system includes at least two mirrored circuits, at least two mirrored lO devices, a detection means and a re-route means. The two mirrored circuits each include an interface to the system bus, and an lO interface. The input/output interface of each of the mirrored circuits is connected to one of the two mirrored lO devices. Detection means detect a load imbalance in the data transfer between the system bus and either one of the two mirrored lO devices. In response to the detection of a load imbalance, the re-route means re-routes the data transfer between the system bus and the other one of the two mirrored lO devices.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENITON

0012According to the present invention, a server having the features of claim 1 and a method having the features of claim 8 are provided. Preferred embodiments of the invention are defined in the respective dependent claims.

0013Aspects of the present invention may be found in, for example, some embodiments of systems and methods that provide a network interface. In one embodiment, the present invention may provide a server. The server may include, for example, a network connector, a processor, a peripheral component interface (PCI) bridge and a unified driver. The processor may be coupled to the network connector and to the PCI bridge. The processor may be adapted, for example, to process a plurality of different types of network traffic. The unified driver may be coupled to the PCI bridge and may be adapted to provide drivers associated with the plurality of different types of network traffic.

0014In another embodiment, the present invention may provide a method for network interfacing. The method may include, for example, one or more of the following : handling a plurality of different types of network traffic via a layer 2 (L2) connector; processing the different types of network traffic in a single chip; and determining which of the different types of network traffic accesses software services via a single data path.

0015In yet another embodiment, the present invention may provide a method for network interfacing. The method may include, for example, one or more of the following: handling a plurality of different types of network traffic via a single Ethernet connector; processing the plurality of different types of network traffic using an L2 processor, a layer 3 (L3) processor, a layer 4 (L4) processor and an upper layer protocol (ULP) processor; and providing a unified data and control path.

0016These and other advantages, aspects and novel features of the present invention, as well as details of an illustrated embodiment thereof, will be more fully understood from the following description and drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWINGS

0017<ul id="ul0001" list-style="none"><li><figref idref="f0001">FIG. 1</figref> shows a block representation illustrating an embodiment of a server.</li><li><figref idref="f0002">FIG. 2</figref> shows a block representation illustrating an embodiment of a server according to the present invention.</li><li><figref idref="f0003">FIG. 3</figref> shows a block representation illustrating an embodiment of a server according to the present invention.</li></ul>

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

0018Some aspects of the present invention may be found in, for example, systems and methods that provide network interfaces. Some embodiments according to the present invention may provide systems and methods that combine networking functions. For example, in one embodiment according to the present invention, a common networking adapter, a storage adapter, an interprocess communication (IPC) adapter and a management adapter may be combined into a single device. Substantial savings in cost and space may be achieved, for example, by time-division-multiplexing the resources of shared blocks or by dynamically allocating fixed resources between the different network types. Shared blocks may be developed that provide features (e.g., functions) applicable to one or more of the protocols. Shared blocks may also house special services that may not be used by all of the protocols.

0019<figref idref="f0002">FIG. 2</figref> shows a block representation illustrating an embodiment of a server 400 according to the present invention. The server 400 may include, for example, an Ethernet connector 410 and a server enclosure 420. The present invention also contemplates using one or more Ethernet connectors 410. For example, additional Ethernet connectors 410 may be used to provide enhanced performance, fault tolerance or teaming. The server 400 may be adapted to handle a plurality of different networks via the one or more Ethernet connectors 410. As illustrated, in one embodiment according to the present invention, the server 400 may handle five different types of network traffic. However, the present invention also contemplates handling more or less than five different types of network traffic.

0020A first type of network traffic that the server 400 can handle may be, for example, common network traffic such as, for example, Ethernet network traffic employing, for example, internet protocol (IP) technologies or other layer 3 (L3) technologies and transporting small amounts of data and control information around the network. The first type of network traffic may be handled by a first network traffic system that may include, for example, the Ethernet connector 410, a layer 2 (L2) network interface card (NIC) 430, a peripheral component interconnect (PCI) bridge 440, an unified driver 450, a software transmission control protocol (TCP) processor 460, a socket service switch 470 and a socket service 480. The Ethernet connector 410 may be coupled to the L2 NIC 430 which, in turn, may be coupled to the PCI bridge 440. The PCI bridge 440 may be coupled to the unified driver 450 which, in turn, may be coupled to the software TCP processor 460. The software TCP processor 460 may be coupled to the socket service switch 470 which, in turn, may be coupled to the socket service 480. The software TCP processor 460 may support, for example, socket services as well as other types of services.

0021A second type of network traffic that the server 400 can handle may be, for example, TCP accelerated traffic such as, for example, TCP running on top of IP. TCP over IP may be used to move large amounts of data across Ethernet networks. The server 400 may offload the TCP portion of the network traffic, thereby freeing server resources for running non-networking tasks. The second type of network traffic may be handled by a second network traffic system including, for example, a TCP offload engine (TOE) that can accelerate TCP traffic. The second network traffic system may include, for example, the Ethernet connector 410, the L2 NIC 430, a TCP processor 490, the PCl bridge 440, the unified driver 450, the socket service switch 470 and the socket service 480. The Ethernet connector 410 may be coupled to the L2 NIC 430 which, in turn, may be coupled to the TCP processor 490. The TCP processor 490 may be coupled to the PCl bridge which, in turn, may be coupled to the unified driver 450. The unified driver 450 may be coupled to the socket service switch 470 which, in turn, may be coupled to the socket service 480. The TCP accelerated traffic may be serviced by, for example, the socket service 480 or other types of services.

0022A third type of network traffic that the server 400 may handle may be, for example, storage traffic. The third type of network traffic may include, for example, a protocol (e.g., Internet SCSI (iSCSI)) that provides small computer system interface (SCSI) over a TCP/IP network: By using ISCSI, proprietary adapters may be avoided and storage traffic may run over a network shared by some or all of the different types of network traffic. The third type of network traffic may be handled by a third network traffic system that may include, for example, the Ethernet connector 410, the L2 NIC 430, the TCP processor 490, an iSCSI/remote-direct-memory access (RDMA) processor 500, the PCl bridge 440, the unified driver 450 and a SCSI miniport service 510. The Ethernet connector 410 may be coupled to the L2 NIC 430 which, in turn, may be coupled to the TCP processor 490. The TCP processor 490 may be coupled to the iSCSI/RDMA processor 500 which, in turn, may be coupled to the PCI bridge 440. The PCI bridge 440 may be coupled to the unified driver 450 which, in turn, may be coupled to the SCSI miniport service 510.

0023A fourth type of network traffic that the server 400 may handle may be, for example, IPC traffic. IPC networks may allow programs running on different servers to communicate quickly and without substantial overhead. IPC networks may be used with, for example, distributed applications, database servers and file servers. For example, IPC networks may be used when the requisite computing power exceeds the capacity of a particular server or when multiple servers are used for ultra-reliable operation. This type of service may be provided through an RDMA interface such as, for example, Winsock Direct that may directly interface with applications. The fourth type of network traffic may be handled by a fourth network traffic system that may include, for example, the Ethernet connector 410, the L2 NIC 430, the TCP processor 490, the iSCSI/RDMA processor 500, the PCl bridge 440, the unified driver 450 and an RDMA service 520 (e.g., Winsock Direct). The Ethernet connector 410 may be coupled to the L2 NIC 430 which, in turn, may be coupled to the TCP processor 490. The TCP processor 490 may be coupled to the iSCSI/RDMA processor 500 which, in turn, may be coupled to the PCl bridge 440. The PCl bridge 440 may be coupled to the unified driver 450 which, in turn, may be coupled to the RDMA service 520.

0024A fifth type of network traffic that the server 400 may handle may be, for example, any traffic relating to any type of operating system (OS) Agnostic Management Entity or device. These entities or devices may monitor the state of the server 400 and may transmit information relating to state and statistical values over the network. The fifth type of network traffic may be handled by a fifth network traffic system that may include, for example, the Ethernet connector 410, the L2 NIC 430, a server management agent 530 and a keyboard/video/mouse service 540. The fifth network traffic system may provide keyboard, video and mouse hardware services to the server 400 so that these interfaces may be redirected over the network to a central server management system (not shown). The Ethernet connector 410 may be coupled to the L2 NIC 430 which, in turn, may be coupled to the server Management agent 530. The server management agent 530 may be coupled to the keyboard/video/mouse service 540.

0025The present invention contemplates employing different levels of integration. For example, according to one embodiment of the present invention, a single integrated chip 550 may include, for example, one or more of the following: the L2 NIC 430, the TCP processor 490 and the iSCSI/RDMA processor 500. In another embodiment according to the present invention, software 560 may provide, for example, one or more of the following: the TCP processor 460, the socket service switch 470, the socket service 480, the unified driver 450, the SCSI miniport service 510, the RDMA service 520 and the keyboard/video/mouse service 540.

0026<figref idref="f0003">FIG. 3</figref> shows a block diagram illustrating the server 400 with some integrated components according to the present invention. In one embodiment according to the present invention, the server enclosure 420 houses the single integrated chip 550, the server management agent 530, the PCl bridge 440 and the software 560. The single integrated chip 550 may be coupled to the Ethernet connector 410, the PCI bridge 440 and the server management agent 530. The PCI bridge 440 and the server management agent 530 may each be coupled to the software 560. Thus, the single integrated chip 550 may handle, for example, five types of network traffic through a single Ethernet connector 410. The single integrated chip 550 or the PCl bridge 440 may determine which of the five types of network traffic may access the software 560 including the unified driver 450 and the various services 480, 510, 520 and 540. Access to the software 560 may be achieved via a number of different techniques including, for example, time division multiplexing and dynamically allocating fixed resources between the different network types.

0027Some embodiments according to the present invention may include one or more of the advantages as set forth below.

0028Some embodiments according to the present invention may employ a single Ethernet connector 410. Some embodiments may overcome a difficulty in that some operating systems insist that each connector for each type of traffic have a different driver. Furthermore, other embodiments may avoid the use of a layer 3 (L3) level switch which would be required to combine connections because input traffic would have to be sorted by IP address and sent only to the particular adapter with the particular IP address that might handle that particular traffic.

0029Some embodiments according to the present invention may provide a unified data path and control path. Such a unified approach may provide substantial cost and space savings through the integration of different components.

0030Some embodiments according to the present invention may share a TCP stack between the different types of network traffic systems. Cost savings may result from the elimination of redundant logic and code.

0031Some embodiments according to the present invention may share packet buffer memory. The network traffic systems may share the receive (RX) and the transmit (TX) buffer memory resources since the network traffic systems share a common Ethernet connection.

0032Some embodiments according to the present invention may share a direct memory access (DMA) engine and buffering technologies. Some of the network traffic systems and protocols may share buffering strategies and thus the logic for the mapping may be shared. Furthermore, since the DMA traffic may use a single Ethernet connection, buffering strategies may share the same DMA structure.

0033Some embodiments according to the present invention may have similar NIC-to-driver and driver-to-NIC strategies. By using a common technique for both directions of indication, cost may be saved over separate implementations.

0034Some embodiments according to the present invention may use a single IP address. By combining multiple networks and functions into a single NIC, a single IP address may be employed to serve them all. This may substantially reduce the number of IP addresses used in complex server systems and also may simplify the management and configurations of such systems.

0035Some embodiments according to the present invention may provide pooling and/or dynamic allocation of connection context data. The pooling of connection context between different protocols may allow substantial reductions in the storage space used and may make possible storing of connection context in a memory-on-a-chip implementation. The memory-on-a-chip implementation may remove, for example, the pins/power complexity associated with external memory.

0036While the present invention has been described with reference to certain embodiments, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that various changes may be made and equivalents may be substituted without departing from the scope of the present invention. In addition, many modifications may be made to adapt a particular situation or material to the teachings of the present invention without departing from its scope. Therefore, it is intended that the present invention not be limited to the particular embodiments disclosed, but that the present invention will include all embodiments falling within the scope of the appended claims.

0037Accordingly, the present invention may be realized in hardware, software, or a combination of hardware and software. The present invention may be realized in a centralized fashion in one computer system, or in a distributed fashion where different elements are spread across several interconnected computer systems. Any kind of computer system or other apparatus adapted for carrying out the methods described herein is suited. A typical combination of hardware and software may be a general-purpose computer system with a computer program that, when being loaded and executed, controls the computer system such that it carries out the methods described herein.

0038The present invention may also be embedded in a computer program product, which comprises all the features enabling the implementation of the methods described herein, and which when loaded in a computer system is able to cany out these methods. Computer program in the present context means any expression, in any language, code or notation, of a set of instructions intended to cause a system having an information processing capability to perform a particular function either directly or after either or both of the following: a) conversion to another language, code or notation; b) reproduction in a different material form.

0039Therefore, it is intended that the present invention not be limited to the particular embodiment disclosed, but that the present invention will include all embodiments falling within the scope of the appended claims.