Abstract: Systems and methods for protecting external memory resources to prevent bandwidth collapse in a network processor. One embodiment is a network processor including an input port configured to receive packets from a source device, on-chip memory configured to store packets in queues, and external memory configured to provide a backing store to the on-chip memory. The network processor also includes a processor configured, in response to determining that the source device is unresponsive to a congestion notification, to reduce a size of one or more queues to prevent packets transferring from the on-chip memory to the external memory.

Abstract: Systems and methods for protecting external memory resources to prevent bandwidth collapse in a network processor. One embodiment is a network processor including an input port configured to receive packets from a source device, on-chip memory configured to store packets in queues, an external memory interface configured to couple the on-chip memory with an external memory providing a backing store to the on-chip memory, and bandwidth monitor configured to measure a bandwidth utilization of the external memory. The network processor also includes a processor configured to apply the bandwidth utilization of the external memory to a congestion notification profile, to generate one or more congestion notifications based on the bandwidth utilization applied to the congestion notification profile, and to send the one or more congestion notifications to the source device to request decreasing packet rate for decreasing the bandwidth utilization of the external memory.

Abstract: Systems and methods for protecting external memory resources to prevent bandwidth collapse in a network processor. One embodiment is a network processor including an input port configured to receive packets from a source device, on-chip memory configured to store packets in queues, and external memory configured to provide a backing store to the on-chip memory. The network processor also includes a processor configured, in response to determining that the source device is unresponsive to a congestion notification, to reduce a size of one or more queues to prevent packets transferring from the on-chip memory to the external memory.

Abstract: A re-sequencing system offloads the cycle intensive task of re-sequencing TCP packets from host memory using a partial offload engine to re-sequence out-of-sequence data packets. However, as opposed to re-ordering the actual data packets, no actual data copy is needed. Instead, packet descriptors associated with each data packet are generated, and it is the packet descriptors that are re-sequenced. The data packets themselves are temporarily stored in packet buffers while the packet descriptors are sorted into sequence. The re-sequencing system preferably re-sequences a data stream of TCP data packets received from an ethernet network. The re-sequencing system is implemented within a computing device, preferably a personal computer or a server.

Abstract: A method and system for adaptive multi-protocol resilient packet ring (RPR) processing are provided. The present invention provides optimal handling operations targeted for both legacy and evolving RPR functions related to topology discovery, fairness algorithms, and control-packet manipulation. Further, the present invention utilizes out-band paths, unique data and instruction memory constructs, and pipeline and multi-thread features to provide wire-rate performance. In one embodiment, a system of the present invention includes instruction memory; a fetch unit associated with instruction memory; a decode unit associated with the fetch unit; at least one execution unit associated with the decode unit; a load/store unit associated with the at least one execution unit; and data memory associated with the load/store unit.