Associating a packet with a flow

Abstract

A computer system includes a system memory, a processor and a peripheral. The peripheral includes a peripheral memory, a circuit, a first interface to receive a packet and a second interface that is adapted to communicate with the system memory. The peripheral memory is adapted to store a table that includes entries that identify different packet flows. The circuit is adapted to use the table to associate the packet with one of the packet flows and based on the association, interact with the second interface to selectively transfer a portion of the packet to the system memory for processing by the processor.

1 . A method comprising: 
 communicating with a peripheral to cause entries to be stored in a memory of the peripheral identifying different packet flows, the entries being used by the peripheral to associate a packet received by the peripheral with one of the packet flows.    
   
   
       2 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the act of communicating comprises causing indications of handlers to be stored in the memory, each of the handlers being used by a network protocol stack to identify one of the packet flows.  
   
   
       3 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the act of communicating comprises causing indications of port numbers to be stored in the memory, each of the port numbers being associated with an application.  
   
   
       4 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the act of communicating comprises causing indications of security attributes to be stored in the memory.  
   
   
       5 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the act of communicating comprises causing indications of pointers to regions of a memory separate from the memory of the peripheral to be stored in the memory.  
   
   
       6 . The method of  claim 5 , wherein said memory separate from the memory of the peripheral comprises a system memory of a host computer.  
   
   
       7 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the peripheral comprises a network controller.  
   
   
       8 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising: 
 communicating with the peripheral to cause at least one of the entries to be removed from the memory of the peripheral.    
   
   
       9 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the act of communicating comprises executing a driver routine associated with the peripheral.  
   
   
       10 . The method of  claim 9 , wherein the executing comprises: 
 executing instructions in a host computer for the peripheral.    
   
   
       11 . A computer system comprising: 
 a system memory;    a peripheral comprising a memory to store a table, the table including entries identifying different packet flows and being used by the peripheral to associate a received packet with one of the packet flows; and    a processor to communicate with the peripheral to change the entries of the table.    
   
   
       12 . The computer system of  claim 11 , wherein the processor communicates with the peripheral to cause the peripheral to store at least one of the entries in the table.  
   
   
       13 . The computer system of  claim 11 , wherein the processor communicates with the peripheral to cause the peripheral to delete at least one of the entries from the table.  
   
   
       14 . The computer system of  claim 11 , wherein the processor communicates with the peripheral to cause the peripheral to store at least one indication of a handler in the memory, the handler being used by a network protocol stack to identify one of the packet flows.  
   
   
       15 . The computer system of  claim 11 , wherein the processor communicates with the peripheral to cause the peripheral to store at least one indication of a port number associated with an application in the memory of the peripheral.  
   
   
       16 . The computer system of  claim 11 , wherein the processor communicates with the peripheral to cause the peripheral to store an indication of a security attribute in the memory of the peripheral.  
   
   
       17 . The computer system of  claim 11 , wherein the processor communicates with the peripheral to cause the peripheral to store in the memory of the peripheral an indication of a pointer to a region of the system memory.  
   
   
       18 . The computer system of  claim 11 , wherein the peripheral comprises a network controller, the processor comprises a central processing unit and the central processor unit and the system memory are each separate from the peripheral.  
   
   
       19 . An article comprising a computer accessible storage medium storing instructions that when executed by a processor-based system cause the processor-based system to: 
 communicate with a peripheral to cause the peripheral to store entries in a memory of the peripheral identifying different packet flows, the entries being used by the peripheral to associate a packet received by the peripheral with one of the packet flows.    
   
   
       20 . The article of  claim 19 , the storage medium storing instructions that when executed by the processor-based system cause the processor-based system to cause the peripheral to store indications of handlers in the memory, each of the handlers being used by a network protocol stack to identify one of the packet flows.  
   
   
       21 . The article of  claim 19 , the storage medium storing instructions that when executed by the processor-based system cause the processor-based system to cause the peripheral to store indications of port numbers in the memory, each of the port numbers being associated with an application.  
   
   
       22 . The article of  claim 19 , the storage medium storing instructions that when executed by the processor-based system cause the processor-based system to cause the peripheral to store indications of security attributes in the memory.  
   
   
       23 . The article of  claim 19 , the storage medium storing instructions that when executed by the processor-based system cause the processor-based system to cause the peripheral to store indications of pointers in the memory of the peripheral to regions of a memory separate from the memory of the peripheral.  
   
   
       24 . The article of  claim 23 , wherein said memory separate from the memory of the peripheral comprises a system memory of a host computer.  
   
   
       25 . The article of  claim 19 , wherein the instructions comprise instructions of a driver routine associated with controlling the peripheral by a host computer.