Tunnel Acceleration for Wireless Access Points

Abstract

A method and system for network offloading includes receiving a packet at a communication interface of a wireless access point and processing the packet at a flow acceleration processor prior to processing the packet at a host processor. The flow acceleration processor may process the packet for header checking or security processing. The flow acceleration processor may provide the packet to a security coprocessor for security processing. The flow acceleration processor may generate a result code indicating whether the processing at the flow acceleration processor was successful. If the processing was unsuccessful, the packet is provided to the host processor for exception processing.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A system comprising:
 flow acceleration circuity configured to:
 receive a packet for flow acceleration processing; 
 when the packet fails to meet a recognition criterion, assign a processing result code to the packet, the result code configured to indicate that exception processing applies for the packet; and 
   host circuitry, coupled to the flow acceleration circuitry, the host circuitry configured to:
 receive the result code and the packet from the flow acceleration circuitry; 
 responsive to the result code, perform the exception processing on the packet; and 
 resubmit the packet to the flow acceleration circuitry after the exception processing. 
   
     
     
         2 . The system of  claim 1 , where the flow acceleration circuitry is further configured to extract a flow key from the packet to determine that the packet fails to meet the recognition criterion. 
     
     
         3 . The system of  claim 2 , where the flow key comprises an identifier of an endpoint of a network tunnel. 
     
     
         4 . The system of  claim 2 , where the flow acceleration circuitry is further configured to access a record in a flow descriptor table responsive to the flow key. 
     
     
         5 . The system of  claim 4 , where the flow acceleration circuitry is configured to determine that the packet fails to meet the recognition criterion when the record in the flow descriptor table is unrecognized. 
     
     
         6 . The system of  claim 4 , where the record in the flow descriptor table is configured to identify an encapsulation format of the packet. 
     
     
         7 . The system of  claim 1 , where the host circuitry is configured to resubmit the packet with a transmit descriptor, the transmit descriptor comprising a processing instruction for the flow acceleration circuitry. 
     
     
         8 . The system of  claim 7 , where:
 the processing instruction comprises a bypass indicator; and   the flow acceleration circuitry is configured to pass the packet, responsive to the bypass indicator, to switching circuitry.   
     
     
         9 . The system of  claim 7 , where:
 the processing instruction comprises a transmission unit size; and   the flow acceleration circuitry is configured to divide the packet into fragments based on the transmission unit size.   
     
     
         10 . The system of  claim 1 , where the exception processing comprises a removal of an encapsulation form the packet. 
     
     
         11 . The system of  claim 1 , where the exception processing comprises a reformat of an encapsulation of the packet. 
     
     
         12 . The system of  claim 1 , where the flow acceleration circuitry is configured to send the packet to a security co-processor to determine when the packet fails to meet the recognition criterion. 
     
     
         13 . The system of  claim 12 , where the flow acceleration circuitry is configured to determine that the packet failed to meet the recognition criterion when the security co-processor fails to de-crypt the packet. 
     
     
         14 . The system of  claim 1 , where:
 the host circuitry is further configured to send a command to the flow acceleration circuitry to perform exception processing, the command configured to add an entry to a flow descriptor table; and   the entry is configured to cause the packet to meet the recognition criterion after the packet is resubmitted to the flow acceleration circuitry.   
     
     
         15 . A device comprising:
 flow acceleration circuitry in data communication with host circuitry, the flow acceleration circuitry configured to:
 receive a network packet from the network interface circuitry; 
 when the network packet fails to meet a recognition criterion, assign a processing result code to the network packet, the result code indicates exception processing for the network packet; 
 send the network packet and the result code to the host circuitry; and 
 responsive to the result code, receive a resubmission of the network packet from the host circuitry after exception processing at the host circuitry. 
   
     
     
         16 . The device of  claim 15 , where the network packet comprises a flow key that identifies a network tunnel. 
     
     
         17 . The device of  claim 16 , where the flow acceleration circuitry is configured to reference an entry for the flow key in a descriptor table to determine an encapsulation format for the network tunnel. 
     
     
         18 . A product comprising:
 a machine-readable medium other than a transitory signal; and   instructions stored on the machine-readable medium, the instructions configured to, when executed by a machine:
 access a flow key within a packet received at flow acceleration circuitry, the flow key comprising an identifier of an endpoint of a network tunnel; 
 reference a descriptor table to determine an encapsulation format for the network tunnel; 
 when the encapsulation format is unrecognized by the flow acceleration circuitry, determine that the packet has failed to meet a recognition criterion; 
 generate a result code indicating that the packet has failed to meet the recognition criterion; 
 send the result code and the packet to host circuitry for exception processing; and 
 receive a resubmission of the packet from the host circuitry after exception processing. 
   
     
     
         19 . The product of  claim 18 , where the resubmission of the packet comprises a re-encapsulation of the packet. 
     
     
         20 . The product of  claim 18 , where the instructions are further configured to reference the descriptor table a second time after resubmission of the packet to access an updated entry.