Abstract: Data-driven intelligent networking systems and methods are provided. The system can accommodate dynamic traffic with fast, effective endpoint congestion detection and control. The system can maintain state information of individual packet flows, which can be set up or released dynamically based on injected data. Each flow can be provided with a flow-specific input queue upon arriving at a switch. Packets of a respective flow can be acknowledged after reaching the egress point of the network, and the acknowledgement packets can be sent back to the ingress point of the flow along the same data path. As a result, each switch can obtain state information of each flow and perform flow control on a per-flow basis.

Abstract: A network interface controller (NIC) capable of facilitating efficient memory address translation is provided. The NIC can be equipped with a host interface, a cache, and an address translation unit (ATU). During operation, the ATU can determine an operating mode. The operating mode can indicate whether the ATU is to perform a memory address translation at the NIC. The ATU can then determine whether a memory address indicated in the memory access request is available in the cache. If the memory address is not available in the cache, the ATU can perform an operation on the memory address based on the operating mode.

Abstract: Data-driven intelligent networking systems and methods are provided. The system can accommodate dynamic traffic with fast, effective per-flow credit-based flow control. The system can maintain state information of individual packet flows, which can be set up or released dynamically based on injected data. Each flow can be provided with a flow-specific input queue upon arriving at a switch. Packets of a respective flow can be acknowledged after reaching the egress point of the network, and the acknowledgement packets can be sent back to the ingress point of the flow along the same data path. As a result, each switch can obtain state information of each flow and perform flow control on a per-flow basis.

Abstract: A network switch includes multiple data crossbars and multiple header planes for controlling the data crossbars. In an example implementation, a device includes: a plurality of header planes, each of the header planes including an input queue, an output queue, a request crossbar connected to the input queue and the output queue, and a grant crossbar connected to the input queue and the output queue; a receiver; and a header plane selector. The header plane selector is configured to: receive a transfer request for a packet from the receiver; select a header plane of the header planes based on a header of the packet; and queue the transfer request at the input queue of the header plane.

Abstract: A network switch has a packet pulling architecture, and also supports packet pushing. In an example implementation, a device includes: an output buffer; a data crossbar connected to the output buffer; an input buffer connected to the data crossbar; an input queue; a request crossbar connected to the input queue; and an output queue. The input queue is configured to transfer a packet from the input buffer to the output buffer over the data crossbar in response to the packet being eligible for packet pushing, and to send a push request in parallel with transferring the packet to the output buffer.

Abstract: Data-driven intelligent networking systems and methods are provided. The system can accommodate dynamic traffic with fast, effective endpoint congestion detection and control. The system can maintain state information of individual packet flows, which can be set up or released dynamically based on injected data. Each flow can be provided with a flow-specific input queue upon arriving at a switch. Packets of a respective flow can be acknowledged after reaching the egress point of the network, and the acknowledgement packets can be sent back to the ingress point of the flow along the same data path. As a result, each switch can obtain state information of each flow and perform flow control on a per-flow basis.

Abstract: Data-driven intelligent networking systems and methods are provided. The system can accommodate dynamic traffic with fast, effective per-flow credit-based flow control. The system can maintain state information of individual packet flows, which can be set up or released dynamically based on injected data. Each flow can be provided with a flow-specific input queue upon arriving at a switch. Packets of a respective flow can be acknowledged after reaching the egress point of the network, and the acknowledgement packets can be sent back to the ingress point of the flow along the same data path. As a result, each switch can obtain state information of each flow and perform flow control on a per-flow basis.

Abstract: Methods and systems are provided to facilitate network egress fairness between applications. At an egress port of a network, an arbitrator can provide fairness-based traffic shaping to data associated with applications. The desired fairness-based traffic shaping can be provided based on bandwidth, traffic classes, or other parameters. Consequently, the egress link's bandwidth can be allocated with fairness among the applications.

Abstract: Methods and systems are provided to facilitate network ingress fairness between applications. At an ingress port of a network, the applications providing data communications are reviewed so that and arbitration process can be used to fairly allocate bandwidth at that ingress port. In a typical process, the bandwidth is allocated based upon the number of flow channels, irrespective of the source and characteristics of those flow channels. At the ingress port, an examination of the application providing the data communication will allow for a more appropriate allocation of input bandwidth.

Abstract: Data-driven intelligent networking systems and methods are provided. The system can accommodate dynamic traffic with fast, effective flow control of individual applications and traffic flows in conjunction with an end host. The system can maintain state information of individual packet flows, which can be set up or released dynamically based on injected data. Each flow can be provided with a flow-specific input queue upon arriving at a switch. Packets of a respective flow can be acknowledged after reaching the egress point of the network, and the acknowledgement packets can be sent back to the ingress point of the flow along the same data path. As a result, an ingress edge switch can perform fine grain flow control of individual sources of the flows residing on an end host.

Abstract: A data-driven intelligent networking system that can facilitate tracing of data flow packets is provided. The system add tracer packets to data flow packets arriving at an ingress point of the network. As the tracer packets progress through network in-band with the data flow packets, the system can copy, at each switch, trace data into pre-defined fields in the tracer packets. When the data flow packets arrive at an egress point of the network the system can separate the trace data from the data flow packet for analysis. Based on the analysis of the trace data, the system can adopt one or more policies to mitigate the impact of congestion on time-sensitive applications.

Abstract: The efficient storage of transformation information in a switch is provided. A respective port of the switch can include a memory device capable of storing transformation information. During operation, the switch can apply a selection mechanism to the transformation information learned at the switch for identifying a target port. The switch can then store the information in the memory device of the target port. Upon receiving a packet, the ingress port can apply the selection mechanism to the header information of the packet for determining a location of a first piece of transformation information associated with the packet. The ingress port can obtain the first piece of transformation information by looking up the header information in the location and storing it in a local memory device. The ingress port can then transform the packet based on the first piece of transformation information for determining an egress port for the packet.

Abstract: Methods and systems are provided to facilitate network ingress fairness between applications. At an ingress port of a network, the applications providing data communications are reviewed so that and arbitration process can be used to fairly allocate bandwidth at that ingress port. In a typical process, the bandwidth is allocated based upon the number of flow channels, irrespective of the source and characteristics of those flow channels. At the ingress port, an examination of the application providing the data communication will allow for a more appropriate allocation of input bandwidth.

Abstract: Systems and methods are provided for efficiently routing data through a network having a plurality of switches configured in a fat-tree topology, including: receiving a data transmission comprising a plurality of packets at an edge port of the network, and routing the data transmission through the network with routing decisions based upon a routing table, wherein the routing table includes entries to effect routing decisions based upon a destination based hash function.

Abstract: The efficient storage of transformation information in a switch is provided. A respective port of the switch can include a memory device capable of storing transformation information. During operation, the switch can apply a selection mechanism to the transformation information learned at the switch for identifying a target port. The switch can then store the information in the memory device of the target port. Upon receiving a packet, the ingress port can apply the selection mechanism to the header information of the packet for determining a location of a first piece of transformation information associated with the packet. The ingress port can obtain the first piece of transformation information by looking up the header information in the location and storing it in a local memory device. The ingress port can then transform the packet based on the first piece of transformation information for determining an egress port for the packet.

Abstract: Data-driven intelligent networking systems and methods are provided. The system can accommodate dynamic traffic with fast, effective flow control of individual applications and traffic flows in conjunction with an end host. The system can maintain state information of individual packet flows, which can be set up or released dynamically based on injected data. Each flow can be provided with a flow-specific input queue upon arriving at a switch. Packets of a respective flow can be acknowledged after reaching the egress point of the network, and the acknowledgement packets can be sent back to the ingress point of the flow along the same data path. As a result, an ingress edge switch can perform fine grain flow control of individual sources of the flows residing on an end host.

Abstract: The efficient storage of transformation information in a switch is provided. A respective port of the switch can include a memory device capable of storing transformation information. During operation, the switch can apply a selection mechanism to the transformation information learned at the switch for identifying a target port. The switch can then store the information in the memory device of the target port. Upon receiving a packet, the ingress port can apply the selection mechanism to the header information of the packet for determining a location of a first piece of transformation information associated with the packet. The ingress port can obtain the first piece of transformation information by looking up the header information in the location and storing it in a local memory device. The ingress port can then transform the packet based on the first piece of transformation information for determining an egress port for the packet.

Abstract: A data-driven intelligent networking system that can facilitate tracing of data flow packets is provided. The system add tracer packets to data flow packets arriving at an ingress point of the network. As the tracer packets progress through network in-band with the data flow packets, the system can copy, at each switch, trace data into pre-defined fields in the tracer packets. When the data flow packets arrive at an egress point of the network the system can separate the trace data from the data flow packet for analysis. Based on the analysis of the trace data, the system can adopt one or more policies to mitigate the impact of congestion on time-sensitive applications.

Abstract: A network interface controller (NIC) capable of efficient command management is provided. The NIC can be equipped with a host interface, an arbitration logic block, and a command management logic block. During operation, the host interface can couple the NIC to a host device. The arbitration logic block can select a command queue of the host device for obtaining a command. The command management logic block can determine whether an internal buffer associated with the command queue includes a command. If the internal buffer includes the command, the command management logic block can obtain the command from the internal buffer. On the other hand, if the internal buffer is empty, the command management logic block can obtain the command from the command queue via the host interface.

Abstract: Systems and methods are provided for efficiently routing data through a network having a plurality of switches configured in a fat-tree topology, including: receiving a data transmission comprising a plurality of packets at an edge port of the network, and routing the data transmission through the network with routing decisions based upon a routing table, wherein the routing table includes entries to effect routing decisions based upon a destination based hash function.