Method and apparatus for managing a network flow in a high performance network interface
US6650640B1 · kind B1 · utility
Assignee
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | Mar 1, 1999 |
| Grant date | Nov 18, 2003 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Mar 1, 2019 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
- CPC primaryH04L69/22
- WIPO fieldDigital communication
- WIPO sectorElectrical engineering
Abstract
A system and method are provided for managing information concerning a network flow comprising packets sent from a source entity to a destination entity served by a network interface. A network flow is established for each datagram sent from the source entity to the destination entity. A flow key, identifying the source and destination entities, is stored in a data structure along with information concerning validity of the flow, sequence of data in the flow datagram and how recently the flow was active. Once a flow is established, it is updated each time a packet containing data from the flow's datagram is received. When such a packet is received, an operation code is generated for identifying whether the packet is suitable for a particular network interface function. An operation code may, for example, indicate that a packet contains data to be re-assembled with other data from the same flow. Another operation code may indicate that a packet is not suitable for data re-assembly. Another operation code may specify that the packet is simply a control packet, has no data, or that the packet was received out of order.
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.