Patents by Inventor Thomas D. Lovett

Thomas D. Lovett has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Patent number: 11528229
    Abstract: This disclosure describes systems, devices, methods and computer readable media for enhanced network communication for use in higher performance applications including storage, high performance computing (HPC) and Ethernet-based fabric interconnects. In some embodiments, a network controller may include a transmitter circuit configured to transmit packets on a plurality of virtual lanes (VLs), the VLs associated with a defined VL priority and an allocated share of network bandwidth. The network controller may also include a bandwidth monitor module configured to measure bandwidth consumed by the packets and an arbiter module configured to adjust the VL priority based on a comparison of the measured bandwidth to the allocated share of network bandwidth. The transmitter circuit may be further configured to transmit the packets based on the adjusted VL priority.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 14, 2020
    Date of Patent: December 13, 2022
    Assignee: Intel Corporation
    Inventors: Albert S. Cheng, Thomas D. Lovett, Michael A. Parker
  • Publication number: 20210036959
    Abstract: This disclosure describes systems, devices, methods and computer readable media for enhanced network communication for use in higher performance applications including storage, high performance computing (HPC) and Ethernet-based fabric interconnects. In some embodiments, a network controller may include a transmitter circuit configured to transmit packets on a plurality of virtual lanes (VLs), the VLs associated with a defined VL priority and an allocated share of network bandwidth. The network controller may also include a bandwidth monitor module configured to measure bandwidth consumed by the packets and an arbiter module configured to adjust the VL priority based on a comparison of the measured bandwidth to the allocated share of network bandwidth. The transmitter circuit may be further configured to transmit the packets based on the adjusted VL priority.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 14, 2020
    Publication date: February 4, 2021
    Applicant: Intel Corporation
    Inventors: ALBERT S. CHENG, THOMAS D. LOVETT, MICHAEL A. PARKER
  • Patent number: 10771404
    Abstract: Particular embodiments described herein provide for a network element that can be configured to receive a request message, wherein the request message includes a read trigger, an indicator selector, and a completion trigger, determine an indicator that relates to the indicator selector, and perform an action when the read trigger is activated.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 22, 2016
    Date of Patent: September 8, 2020
    Assignee: Intel Corporation
    Inventors: David Keppel, Thomas D. Lovett, Michael A. Parker, Robert C. Zak, Jr.
  • Patent number: 10757039
    Abstract: Apparatuses, methods and storage medium associated with routing data in a switch are provided. In embodiments, the switch may include route lookup circuitry determine a first set of output ports that are available to send a data packet to a destination node. The lookup circuitry may further select, based on respective congestion levels associated with the first set of output ports, a plurality of output ports for a second set of output ports from the first set of output ports. An input queue of the switch may buffer the data packet and route information associated with the second set of output ports. The switch may further include route selection circuitry to select a destination output port from the second set of output ports, based on updated congestion levels associated with the output ports of the second set of output ports. Other embodiments may be described and/or claimed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 24, 2014
    Date of Patent: August 25, 2020
    Assignee: Intel Corporation
    Inventors: Albert S. Cheng, Thomas D. Lovett, Michael A. Parker
  • Patent number: 10715452
    Abstract: This disclosure describes systems, devices, methods and computer readable media for enhanced network communication for use in higher performance applications including storage, high performance computing (HPC) and Ethernet-based fabric interconnects. In some embodiments, a network controller may include a transmitter circuit configured to transmit packets on a plurality of virtual lanes (VLs), the VLs associated with a defined VL priority and an allocated share of network bandwidth. The network controller may also include a bandwidth monitor module configured to measure bandwidth consumed by the packets and an arbiter module configured to adjust the VL priority based on a comparison of the measured bandwidth to the allocated share of network bandwidth. The transmitter circuit may be further configured to transmit the packets based on the adjusted VL priority.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 28, 2019
    Date of Patent: July 14, 2020
    Assignee: INTEL CORPORATION
    Inventors: Albert S. Cheng, Thomas D. Lovett, Michael A. Parker
  • Patent number: 10671113
    Abstract: Technologies for synchronized sampling of counters include a computing device to determine a global clock to which the computing device and a plurality of other computing devices are to be synchronized. The computing device receives a request to sample a counter of the computing device from an administration server and records a state of the counter based on the global clock in response to receiving the request.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 27, 2014
    Date of Patent: June 2, 2020
    Assignee: Intel Corporation
    Inventor: Thomas D. Lovett
  • Patent number: 10454850
    Abstract: Apparatuses, methods and storage medium associated with buffering data in a switch are provided. In embodiments, the switch may include a plurality of queue buffers, a plurality of queues respectively associated with the plurality of queue buffers, a shared buffer, and a queue point controller coupled with the plurality of queue buffers and the shared buffer. In embodiments the queue point controller may be configured to determine an amount of available space in a selected queue buffer of the plurality of queue buffers. The queue point controller may be further configured to allocate at least a portion of the shared buffer to a selected queue that is associated with the selected queue buffer. In embodiments, this allocation may be based on the amount of available space determined in the selected queue buffer. Other embodiments may be described and/or claimed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 24, 2014
    Date of Patent: October 22, 2019
    Assignee: Intel Corporation
    Inventors: Albert S. Cheng, Thomas D. Lovett, Michael S. Parker, Steven F. Hoover
  • Patent number: 10432586
    Abstract: Technologies for fabric security include one or more managed network devices coupled to one or more computing nodes via high-speed fabric links. A managed network device enables a port and, while enabling the port, securely determines the node type of the link partner coupled to the port. If the link partner is a computing node, management access is not allowed at the port. The managed network device may allow management access at certain predefined ports, which may be connected to one of more management nodes. Management access may be allowed for additional ports in response to management messages received from the management nodes. The managed network device may check and verify data packet headers received from a compute node at each port. The managed network device may rate-limit management messages received from a compute node at each port. Other embodiments are described and claimed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 27, 2014
    Date of Patent: October 1, 2019
    Assignee: Intel Corporation
    Inventors: Todd M. Rimmer, Thomas D. Lovett, Alberto J. Munoz
  • Patent number: 10372647
    Abstract: Methods and apparatus for implementing time synchronization across exascale fabrics. A master clock node is coupled to a plurality of slave nodes via a fabric comprising a plurality of fabric switches and a plurality of fabric links, wherein each slave node is connected to the master clock node via a respective clock tree path that traverses at least one fabric switch. The fabric switches are configured to selectively forward master clock time data internally along paths with fixed latencies that bypass the switches' buffers and switch circuitry, which enables the entire clock tree paths to also have fixed latencies. The fixed latency of the clock tree path is determined for each slave node. The local clocks of the slave nodes are then synchronized with the master clock by using master clock time data received by each slave node and the fixed latency of the clock tree path from the master clock node to the slave node that is determined.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 22, 2015
    Date of Patent: August 6, 2019
    Assignee: Intel Corporation
    Inventors: Thomas D. Lovett, Michael A. Parker, Mark S. Birrittella
  • Publication number: 20190230037
    Abstract: This disclosure describes systems, devices, methods and computer readable media for enhanced network communication for use in higher performance applications including storage, high performance computing (HPC) and Ethernet-based fabric interconnects. In some embodiments, a network controller may include a transmitter circuit configured to transmit packets on a plurality of virtual lanes (VLs), the VLs associated with a defined VL priority and an allocated share of network bandwidth. The network controller may also include a bandwidth monitor module configured to measure bandwidth consumed by the packets and an arbiter module configured to adjust the VL priority based on a comparison of the measured bandwidth to the allocated share of network bandwidth. The transmitter circuit may be further configured to transmit the packets based on the adjusted VL priority.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 28, 2019
    Publication date: July 25, 2019
    Applicant: Intel Corporation
    Inventors: ALBERT S. CHENG, THOMAS D. LOVETT, MICHAEL A. PARKER
  • Patent number: 10326711
    Abstract: Apparatuses, methods and storage media associated with multiple multi-drop buses in a switch are provided herein. In some embodiments, the switch may include a multi-drop row bus to transmit a plurality of frames in a row dimension of the matrix switch and a multi-drop column bus to transmit the plurality of frames in a column dimension of the matrix switch. The switch may further include an input port to receive the plurality of frames and an output port to output the plurality of frames from the matrix switch. Other embodiments may be described and/or claimed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 24, 2014
    Date of Patent: June 18, 2019
    Assignee: Intel Corporation
    Inventors: Albert S. Cheng, Thomas D. Lovett, Michael A. Parker, Steven F. Hoover, Gregory J. Hubbard
  • Patent number: 10305802
    Abstract: Method, apparatus, and systems for reliably transferring Ethernet packet data over a link layer and facilitating fabric-to-Ethernet and Ethernet-to-fabric gateway operations at matching wire speed and packet data rate. Ethernet header and payload data is extracted from Ethernet frames received at the gateway and encapsulated in fabric packets to be forwarded to a fabric endpoint hosting an entity to which the Ethernet packet is addressed. The fabric packets are divided into flits, which are bundled in groups to form link packets that are transferred over the fabric at the Link layer using a reliable transmission scheme employing implicit ACKnowledgements. At the endpoint, the fabric packet is regenerated, and the Ethernet packet data is de-encapsulated. The Ethernet frames received from and transmitted to an Ethernet network are encoded using 64b/66b encoding, having an overhead-to-data bit ratio of 1:32.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 31, 2016
    Date of Patent: May 28, 2019
    Assignee: Intel Corporation
    Inventors: Mark S. Birrittella, Thomas D. Lovett, Todd M. Rimmer
  • Patent number: 10237191
    Abstract: This disclosure describes systems, devices, methods and computer readable media for enhanced network communication for use in higher performance applications including storage, high performance computing (HPC) and Ethernet-based fabric interconnects. In some embodiments, a network controller may include a transmitter circuit configured to transmit packets on a plurality of virtual lanes (VLs), the VLs associated with a defined VL priority and an allocated share of network bandwidth. The network controller may also include a bandwidth monitor module configured to measure bandwidth consumed by the packets and an arbiter module configured to adjust the VL priority based on a comparison of the measured bandwidth to the allocated share of network bandwidth. The transmitter circuit may be further configured to transmit the packets based on the adjusted VL priority.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 18, 2015
    Date of Patent: March 19, 2019
    Assignee: Intel Corporation
    Inventors: Albert S. Cheng, Thomas D. Lovett, Michael A. Parker
  • Patent number: 10230665
    Abstract: Methods, apparatus, and systems for implementing hierarchical and lossless packet preemption and interleaving to reduce latency jitter in flow-controller packet-based networks. Fabric packets are divided into a plurality of data units, with data units for different fabric packets buffered in separate buffers. Data units are pulled from the buffers and added to a transmit stream in which groups of data units are interleaved. Upon receipt by a receiver, the groups of data units are separated out and buffered in separate buffers under which data units for the same fabric packets are grouped together. In one aspect, each buffer is associated with a respective virtual lane (VL), and the fabric packets are effectively transferred over fabric links using virtual lanes. VLs may have different levels of priority under which data units for fabric packets in higher-priority VLs may preempt fabric packets in lower-priority VLs.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 20, 2013
    Date of Patent: March 12, 2019
    Assignee: Intel Corporation
    Inventors: Thomas D. Lovett, Albert Cheng, Mark S. Birrittella, James Kunz, Todd Rimmer
  • Patent number: 10205667
    Abstract: One embodiment provides a method for enabling class-based credit flow control for a network node in communication with a link partner using an Ethernet communications protocol. The method includes receiving a control frame from the link partner. The control frame includes at least one field for specifying credit for at least one traffic class and the credit is based on available space in a receive buffer associated with the at least one traffic class. The method further includes sending data packets to the link partner based on the credit, the data packets associated with the at least one traffic class.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 5, 2017
    Date of Patent: February 12, 2019
    Assignee: Intel Corporation
    Inventors: Ilango Ganga, Alain Gravel, Thomas D. Lovett, Radia Perlman, Greg Regnier, Anil Vasudevan, Hugh Wilkinson
  • Publication number: 20180287963
    Abstract: Apparatuses, methods and storage media associated with multiple multi-drop buses in a switch are provided herein. In some embodiments, the switch may include a multi-drop row bus to transmit a plurality of frames in a row dimension of the matrix switch and a multi-drop column bus to transmit the plurality of frames in a column dimension of the matrix switch. The switch may further include an input port to receive the plurality of frames and an output port to output the plurality of frames from the matrix switch. Other embodiments may be described and/or claimed.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 24, 2014
    Publication date: October 4, 2018
    Inventors: Albert S. CHENG, Thomas D. LOVETT, Michael A. PARKER, Steven F. HOOVER, Gregory J. HUBBARD
  • Publication number: 20180287953
    Abstract: Apparatuses, methods and storage medium associated with the placement of data packets in one or more queues of a switch are described herein. In embodiments, the switch may include a plurality of virtual lane (VL) queues (VLQs) and a plurality of generic queues (GQs). A queue manager may be configured to selectively place a packet of a particular VL in a corresponding VLQ or a GQ. Other embodiments may be described and/or claimed.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 23, 2014
    Publication date: October 4, 2018
    Inventors: Albert S. CHENG, Michael A. PARKER, Thomas D. LOVETT, Steven F. HOOVER
  • Publication number: 20180183732
    Abstract: Particular embodiments described herein provide for a network element that can be configured to receive a request message, wherein the request message includes a read trigger, an indicator selector, and a completion trigger, determine an indicator that relates to the indicator selector, and perform an action when the read trigger is activated.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 22, 2016
    Publication date: June 28, 2018
    Applicant: Intel Corporation
    Inventors: David Keppel, Thomas D. Lovett, Michael A. Parker, Robert C. Zak, JR.
  • Patent number: 9917787
    Abstract: Method, apparatus, and systems for implementing flexible credit exchange within high performance fabrics. Available buffer space in a receive buffer on a receive-side of a link is managed and tracked at the transmit-side of the link using credits. Peer link interfaces coupled via a link are provided with receive buffer configuration information that specifies how the receive buffer space in each peer is partitioned and space allocated for each buffer, including a plurality of virtual lane (VL) buffers. Credits are used for tracking buffer space consumption and in credits are returned from the receive-side indicating freed buffer space. The peer link interfaces exchange credit organization information to inform the other peer of how much space each credit represents. In connection with data transfer over the link, the transmit-side de-allocates credits based on an amount of buffer space to be consumed in applicable buffers in the receive buffer.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 16, 2016
    Date of Patent: March 13, 2018
    Assignee: Intel Corporation
    Inventors: Todd Rimmer, Thomas D. Lovett, Albert Cheng
  • Publication number: 20170351294
    Abstract: Technologies for synchronized sampling of counters include a computing device to determine a global clock to which the computing device and a plurality of other computing devices are to be synchronized. The computing device receives a request to sample a counter of the computing device from an administration server and records a state of the counter based on the global clock in response to receiving the request.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 27, 2014
    Publication date: December 7, 2017
    Inventor: Thomas D. LOVETT