State recovery and failover of intelligent network adapters
US7114096B2 · kind B2 · utility
Assignee
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | Apr 2, 2003 |
| Grant date | Sep 26, 2006 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Dec 12, 2024 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
- CPC primaryH04L69/40
- WIPO fieldDigital communication
- WIPO sectorElectrical engineering
Abstract
The present invention provides a method, computer program product, and data processing system for efficiently recovering state and performing failover of a network offload engine. The present invention distinguishes between the hard state and the soft state of a protocol. Hard state is state information that, when lost, leads to incorrect protocol behavior. Soft state is state information that may be lost or become inconsistent without loss of correctness. The present invention ensures correctness by always being able to recover the hard state of the protocol. A preferred embodiment of the present invention performs a failover of a network offload engine by temporarily blocking the reception of network packets, recovering hard state from host information, resuming network operation using a substitute network offload engine, and recovering soft state from the subsequent network activity.
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.