Network Overlay System and Method Using Offload Processors

Abstract

A method for providing network overlay services capable of processing network packets having associated packet metadata is disclosed. The method can include writing packets to a specific memory location accessible by at least one offload processor, with packets transported using a memory bus having a defined memory transport protocol, modifying packet metadata of the packets written to the specific memory location with the at least one offload processor, without requiring modification of the packets by a host processor, and sending the modified packets to the memory bus.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A method for providing network overlay services capable of processing network packets having associated packet metadata, comprising the steps of:
 writing packets to a specific memory location accessible by at least one offload processor, with packets transported using a memory bus having a defined memory transport protocol,   modifying packet metadata of the packets written to the specific memory location with the at least one offload processor, without requiring modification of the packets by a host processor, and   sending the modified packets to the memory bus.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising the step of generating an address of the specific memory location using packet metadata. 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising the step of scheduling processing of packet data on the at least one offload processor. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the at least one offload processor further comprises multiple general purpose offload processors. 
     
     
         5 . The system of  claim 4  further comprising the step of scheduling parallel processing of packet data using the multiple general purpose offload processors. 
     
     
         6 . The system of  claim 4  further comprising the step of providing for context switching of the multiple general purpose offload processors, including storing context information of at least one general purpose offload processor in a memory. 
     
     
         7 . A method for processing network packets, comprising the steps of;
 receiving network packets from a first network,   transporting the packets over a memory bus to an offload processor,   modifying the packets using the offload processor, and   transporting the modified packets over the memory bus to a second network.   
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 7 , wherein the received packets are Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) packets, and the modified packets are Internet Protocol version 4 (IPv4) packets. 
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 7 , wherein the received packets are Internet Protocol version 4 (IPv4) packets, and the modified packets are Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) packets. 
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 7 , wherein modifying the packets includes modification of a header of the packets. 
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 7 , wherein modifying the packets includes at least one of:
 encapsulation and decapsulation of the packet data.   
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 7 , further comprising the step of providing virtualization services, wherein modifying the packets includes at least one of encapsulation and decapsulation of the packet data to support virtual addressing.