Abstract: Methods and systems for protocol offload and direct I/O with I/O sharing in a virtualized network environment are disclosed. Aspects of one method may include a plurality of GOSs sharing a single network interface circuitry, or a network interface card, (NIC) that may provide access to a network. The NIC may directly handle processing of data to be transmitted to the network and/or data received from the network for each of the GOSs without a TGOS for the GOSs handling the data to be transmitted to the network and/or data received from the network. The data may be copied directly from a buffer in the single NIC to an application buffer for one of the plurality of GOSs and/or directly from an application buffer for one of the plurality of GOSs to the buffer in the single NIC.

Abstract: Methods and systems for zero copy in a virtualized network environment are disclosed. Aspects of one method may include a plurality of GOSs that share a single NIC. The NIC may switch communication to a GOS to allow that GOS access to a network via the NIC. The NIC may offload, for example, OSI layer 3, 4, and/or 5 protocol operations from a host system and/or the GOSs. The data received from, or to be transmitted to, the network by the NIC may be copied directly between the NIC's buffer and a corresponding application buffer for one of the GOSs without copying the data to a TGOS. The NIC may access the GOS buffer via a virtual address, a buffer offset, or a physical address. The virtual address and the buffer offset may be translated to a physical address.

Abstract: Certain aspects of a method and system for transparent transmission control protocol (TCP) offload are disclosed. Aspects of a method may include collecting TCP segments in a network interface card (NIC) processor without transferring state information to a host system. The collected TCP segments may be buffered in a coalescer. The coalescer may verify that the network flow associated with the collected TCP segments has an entry in a flow lookup table (FLT). When the FLT is full, the coalescer may close a current entry and assign the network flow to the available entry. The coalescer may also update information in the FLT. When an event occurs that terminates the collection of TCP segments, the coalescer may generate a single aggregated TCP segment based on the collected TCP segments. The aggregated TCP segment and state information may be communicated to the host system for processing.

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

Abstract: Certain aspects of a method and system for transparent transmission control protocol (TCP) offload with dynamic zero copy sending are disclosed. Aspects of a method may include enabling direct memory access of data for a particular user application directly from a user buffer to a buffer in a single integrated circuit, for example, a network interface card (NIC), without copying the data to a kernel buffer, based on an occurrence of a number of memory page faults. At least one page in the user buffer comprising data for the particular user application to be transmitted may be marked as a copy-on-write to prevent modification of contents of the buffer before receipt of at least one acknowledgement packet.

Abstract: Certain aspects of a method and system for transparent transmission control protocol (TCP) offload with best effort direct placement of incoming traffic are disclosed. Aspects of a method may include collecting TCP segments in a network interface card (NIC) processor without transferring state information to a host processor every time a TCP segment is received. When an event occurs that terminates the collection of TCP segments, the NIC processor may generate a new aggregated TCP segment based on the collected TCP segments. If a placement sequence number corresponding to the generated new TCP segment for the particular network flow is received before the TCP segment is received, the generated new TCP segment may be transferred directly from the memory to the user buffer instead of transferring the data to a kernel buffer, which would require further copy by the host stack from kernel buffer to user buffer.

Abstract: Certain aspects of a method and system for transparent transmission control protocol (TCP) offload with per flow estimation of far end transmit window are disclosed. Aspects of a method may include storing at a network interface card (NIC) processor state information for a received TCP segment and state information for transmitted TCP segments for a determined network flow without transferring state information for the received TCP segment to a host system communicatively coupled to the NIC. The generation of a new TCP segment comprising the collected received TCP segments may be controlled based on the occurrence of a termination event and a transmit window size. The period of time for aggregation of received TCP segments may be calculated based on the sequence numbers of the next expected TCP segment and the next received acknowledgement packet.

Abstract: Aspects of a high reliability system for transporting information across a network via a TCP tunnel are presented. The TCP tunnel may include a plurality of TCP connections that may be logically associated with a single TCP tunnel. At least a portion of the plurality of TCP connections may be associated with each of a plurality of different network interfaces. In a fault tolerant system, at least a current portion of a plurality of messages communicated via an RDMA connection may be transported by a current TCP connection associated with a current network interface located at a current RNIC. In the event of a subsequent failure in the current TCP connection a subsequent portion of the plurality of messages may be communicated via a subsequent TCP connection associated with a different network interface. The different network interface may be located at the current RNIC or at a subsequent RNIC.

Abstract: Aspects of a system for transporting information via a communications system may include a processor that enables establishing, from a local remote direct memory access (RDMA) enabled network interface card (RNIC), one or more communication channels, based on the transmission control protocol (TCP), between the local RNIC and at least one remote RNIC via at least one network. The processor may enable establishing at least one RDMA connection between one of a plurality of local RDMA endpoints and at least one remote RDMA endpoint utilizing the one or more communication channels. The processor may further enable communicating messages via the established RDMA connections between one of the plurality of local RDMA endpoints and at least one remote RDMA endpoint independent of whether the messages are in-sequence or out-of-sequence.

Abstract: Aspects of a system for transporting information via a communications system may include a processor that establishes, via a local NIC, a communication channel between the local NIC and a remote NIC via a network. The processor may receive a datagram message from one of a plurality of local endpoints, communicatively coupled to the local NIC, without a dedicated connection. A datagram message may be delivered to one of a plurality of remote endpoints communicatively coupled to a remote NIC. The processor may communicate a datagram message via the local NIC to one of a plurality of remote endpoints via a communication channel without establishing a dedicated connection between one of the plurality of local endpoints and one of the plurality of remote endpoints.