Abstract: Certain aspects of a method and system for quality of service and congestion management for converged network interface devices are disclosed.

Abstract: Certain embodiments of a method and system for handling connection setup in a network may comprise a host that generates connection acceptance criteria and/or a services list that may be transferred to a network interface hardware device for determining whether a remote peer connection request may be accepted. The network interface hardware device may generate connection primitives to complete the network connection setup after accepting the connection request. The network interface hardware device may wait for a response from the host before generating the connection primitives. The network interface hardware device may copy the host during connection setup. The host may provide and indication to the network interface hardware device to deny the connection request or to drop the connection after the connection has been setup. The network interface hardware device may maintain a connection state generated when the connection setup is completed.

Abstract: Certain aspects of a method for iSCSI boot may include loading boot BIOS code from a host bus adapter or a network interface controller (NIC) by an iSCSI client device. A connection may be established to an iSCSI target by the iSCSI client device after loading the boot BIOS code. The boot BIOS code may be chained to at least one interrupt handler over iSCSI protocol. An operating system may be remotely booted from the iSCSI target by the iSCSI client device based on chaining the interrupt handler. An Internet protocol (IP) address and/or location of the iSCSI target may be received. At least one iSCSI connection may be initiated to the iSCSI target based on chaining at least one interrupt handler. The iSCSI target may be booted in real mode if at least one master boot record is located in the memory.

Abstract: Methods and systems for processing network data are disclosed herein and may include receiving from a switching device, a congestion indicator that indicates congestion. In response to the congestion indicator, latency of reaction by a source end point, may be reduced by preventing introduction of queued up new frames to affected flow or CoS before the local stack adjusts its rate to congestion conditions and/or by rate limiting the processing of unprocessed network frames in hardware. The unprocessed network frames may include unprocessed network frames of a particular type. In response to the received congestion indicator, by a destination end point, congestion indicator flags may be set in processed network frames of the particular type, faster than an expected reaction of a local stack. The congestion indicator flags may be explicit congestion notification (ECN)-Echo flags.

Abstract: Certain aspects of a method and system for mitigating denial of service may comprise determining whether at least a first connection identifier of a received incoming packet matches at least a second connection identifier stored in memory. A screening mechanism and a rate limiting mechanism may be utilized to regulate the received incoming packet based on determining whether at least the first connection identifier of the received incoming packet matches at least the second connection identifier stored in memory.

Abstract: Certain embodiments of the invention may be found in a method and system for performing SCSI read operations with a CRC via a TCP offload engine. Aspects of the method may comprise receiving an iSCSI read command from an initiator. Data may be fetched from a buffer based on the received iSCSI read command. The fetched data may be zero copied from the buffer to the initiator and a TCP sequence may be retransmitted to the initiator. A digest value may be calculated, which may be communicated to the initiator. An accumulated digest value stored in a temporary buffer may be utilized to calculate a final digest value, if the buffer is posted. The retransmitted TCP sequence may be processed and the fetched data may be zero copied into an iSCSI buffer, if the buffer is posted. The calculated final digest value may be communicated to the initiator.

Abstract: Aspects for providing pooling or dynamic allocation of connection context data may comprise receiving data associated with a first network protocol via a first network interface and receiving data associated with a second network protocol via a second network interface. The first and the second network interfaces are adapted to aggregate the received data. A single context memory may be shared and utilized for processing data associated with the first network protocol and data associated with the second network protocol. The first network interface may be coupled to a first connection and the second network interface may be coupled to a second connector. At least a portion of the received data associated with the first and/or second network protocols may be offloaded for processing using the single context memory. The received data associated with the first and/or second network protocols may comprise traffic different data and/or control data.

Abstract: In a computing system, a method and system for a thin client and blade architecture are provided. A blade may generate video, audio, and peripheral control information that may be transmitted to a thin client (TC) by utilizing a video encoder, an audio bridge, and a peripheral bridge. Communication between the blade and the TC may occur based on a communication protocol that may operate independently of an operating system and/or applications running on the blade. The video encoder may dynamically compress the video information according to network capacity and/or video content and may dynamically select from various compression algorithms. The blade may configure and manage operations that interface with the TC. The TC may comprise a video decoder, a transceiver, a processor, a video display bridge, an audio bridge, and a peripheral bridge and may be adapted to communicate with peripheral devices.

Abstract: Certain embodiments of the invention may be found in a method and system for performing a SCSI read operation via a TCP offload engine. Aspects of the method may comprise receiving an iSCSI read command from an initiator. Data may be fetched from a buffer based on the received iSCSI read command. The fetched data may be zero copied from the buffer to the initiator and a TCP sequence may be retransmitted to the initiator. The method may further comprise checking if the zero copied fetched data is a first frame in an iSCSI protocol data unit and if the buffer is posted. The retransmitted TCP sequence may be processed and the fetched data may be zero copied into an iSCSI buffer, if the buffer is posted.

Abstract: A method and system is provided for handling data by a TCP offload engine. The TCP offload engine may be adapted to perform SCSI write operations and may comprise receiving an iSCSI write command from an iSCSI port driver. At least one buffer may be allocated for handling data associated with the received iSCSI write command from the iSCSI port driver. The received iSCSI write command may be formatted into at least one TCP segment. The at least one TCP segment may be transmitted to a target. A request to transmit (R2T) signal may be communicated from the target to an initiator. The write data may be zero copied from the allocated at least one buffer in a server to the initiator. A digest value may be calculated, which may be appended to the TCP segment communicated by the initiator to the target.

Abstract: Certain embodiments of the invention may be found in a method and system for performing SCSI write operations via a TCP offload engine. Aspects of the method may comprise receiving an iSCSI write command from an initiator. At least one buffer may be allocated for handling data associated with the received iSCSI write command from the initiator. A request to transmit (R2T) signal may be received that may be transmitted by the initiator. The data may be zero copied from the allocated at least one buffer to the initiator.

Abstract: Certain aspects of a method and system for supporting hardware acceleration for iSCSI read and write operations via a TCP offload engine may comprise pre-registering at least one buffer with hardware. An iSCSI command may be received from an initiator. An initiator test tag value, a data sequence value and/or a buffer offset value of an iSCSI buffer may be compared with the pre-registered buffer. Data may be fetched from the pre-registered buffer based on comparing the initiator test tag value, the data sequence value and/or the buffer offset value of the iSCSI buffer with the pre-registered buffer. The fetched data may be zero copied from the pre-registered buffer to the initiator.

Abstract: Systems and methods that support splitting a compute resource from its input/output and sharing among one or more users are provided. In one embodiment, a system that supports one or more user devices may include, for example, a compute engine, a first user device and a second user device. The compute engine may be adapted to provide virtualization. The virtualization may provide, for example, a first instance of a particular operating system and a second instance of the particular operating system. The first user device may be coupled to the compute engine and may access the first instance of the particular operating system. The second user device may be coupled to the compute engine and may access the second instance of the particular operating system. In one example, the user devices are input/output devices that do not run applications or operating systems.

Abstract: Certain embodiments of the invention may be found in a method and system for multi-layer network interface controller (NIC) operation. An aspect of the invention may utilize a two (2) level work-conserving scheduling system for network interface controller operation and may comprise tracking for all L4/L5 offload connections with active transmit requirements as well as layer 2 (L2) level transmit requirements. The first level may comprise a round-robin scheme that may be utilized to select the next high priority, normal priority, and layer 2 (L2) transmit requirement independently. The send level arbitration may comprise a work-conserving programmable weighted round-robin priority scheme that may be utilized to select amongst the transmit tasks selected by the first level priority scheme.

Abstract: Systems and methods that provide a unified infrastructure over Ethernet are provided. In one embodiment, a method of communicating between an Ethernet-based system and a non-Ethernet-based network may include, for example, one or more of the following: generating an Ethernet frame that comprises a proxy payload, a proxy association header and an Ethernet header, the Ethernet header relating to a control proxy element; sending the Ethernet frame over an Ethernet-based network to the control proxy element; generating a non-Ethernet frame that comprises the proxy payload and a proxy header; and sending the non-Ethernet frame over a non-Ethernet-based network.

Abstract: A method and system for providing pooling or dynamic allocation of connection context data may comprise receiving data associated with a first network protocol and receiving data associated with a second network protocol. A single shared context memory may be utilized for processing at least some of the data associated with the first network protocol and at least some of the data associated with the second network protocol. At least a portion of the received data associated with the first and/or second network protocols may be offloaded for processing in the single context memory. The received data associated with a first and/or second network protocols may comprise traffic data and control data. Portions of the shared single context memory may be dynamically allocated and/or reallocated for processing received data associated with the first and second network protocols.