Lightweight input/output protocol
US7698361B2 · kind B2 · utility
Assignee
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | Dec 31, 2003 |
| Grant date | Apr 13, 2010 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Jul 7, 2027 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
- CPC primaryH04L69/26
- WIPO fieldDigital communication
- WIPO sectorElectrical engineering
Abstract
A method and system for offloading I/O processing from a first computer to a second computer, using RDMA-capable network interconnects, are disclosed. The method and system include a client on the first computer communicating over an RDMA connection to a server on the second computer by way of a lightweight input/output (LWIO) protocol. The protocol generally comprises a network discovery phase followed by an I/O processing phase. During the discovery phase, the client and server determine a minimal list of shared RDMA-capable providers. During the I/O processing phase, the client posts I/O requests for offloading to the second machine over a mutually-authenticated RDMA channel. The I/O model is asymmetric, with read operations being implemented using RDMA and write operations being implemented using normal sends. Read and write requests may be completed in polling mode and in interrupt mode. Buffers are managed by way of a credit mechanism.
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.