Methods, systems and devices for parallel network interface data structures with differential data storage service capabilities

Abstract

Systems, methods and devices relating to a network-accessible data storage device comprising a network interface in data communication with a network, the network interface for receiving and sending data units, the data units being assigned to at least one of a plurality of network data queues depending on at least one data unit characteristic; a data storage component communicatively coupled with the network interface, the data storage component comprising a plurality of data storage resources for receiving and responding to data transactions communicated in data units; and a queue mapping component for mapping each network data queues to at least one data storage resource for processing of data transactions.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A network-accessible data storage device comprising:
 a network interface in data communication with a network, the network interface for receiving and sending data units, the data units being assigned to at least one of a plurality of network data queues depending on at least one data unit characteristic;   a data storage component communicatively coupled with the network interface, the data storage component comprising a plurality of data storage resources for receiving and responding to data transactions communicated in data units; and   a queue mapping component for mapping connections between network data queues and the data storage resources for processing of data transactions.   
     
     
         2 . The data storage device of  claim 1 , wherein the data storage resource comprises at least one of the following: at least one data storage media component, and at least one data transaction queue of one of the at least one data storage media component. 
     
     
         3 . The data storage device of  claim 2 , wherein each of the at least one data storage media component comprises one of the following: a flash memory device, a spinning disk, and a solid state drive. 
     
     
         4 . The data storage device of  claim 3 , wherein the at least one spinning disk is presented as one or more data transaction queues by a disk aggregation software tool. 
     
     
         5 . The data storage device of  claim 2 , wherein the device further comprises one or more processing resources, each processing resource assignable to one or more of the plurality of network data queues. 
     
     
         6 . The data storage device of  claim 1 , wherein the at least one data unit characteristic comprises at least one of the following: source IP address, destination IP address, destination port, packet header information, and data priority. 
     
     
         7 . The data storage device of  claim 1 , wherein the queue mapping component maps network queues with at least one data storage resource to meet a service requirement criteria. 
     
     
         8 . The data storage device of  claim 7 , wherein the service requirement criteria comprises at least one of the following: service quality requirement, and service type requirement. 
     
     
         9 . The data storage device of  claim 8 , wherein the service quality requirement comprises one of the following: maintaining data transaction request latency below a first latency threshold, maintaining data transaction request latency above a second latency threshold, maintaining data transaction request throughput below a first throughput rate threshold, and maintaining data transaction request throughput above a second throughput rate threshold. 
     
     
         10 . The data storage device of  claim 8 , wherein the service type requirement comprises at least one of the following services specific to at least one network data queue: encryption, translation, integrity checking, and redundancy. 
     
     
         11 . The data storage device of  claim 1 , wherein the data storage device further comprises one or more processing resources, wherein said queue mapping component is further for mapping connections between one or more processing resources and said network data queues and said data storage resources. 
     
     
         12 . The data storage device of  claim 11 , wherein a particular connection of one or more data queues, one or more processing resources, and one or more data storage resources is assignable for data units based on at least one data unit characteristic. 
     
     
         13 . The data storage device of  claim 12 , wherein at least a portion of the particular connection can be reassigned to at least some of the data units depending on operational characteristics of the at least one of the more data queues, one or more processing resources, and one or more data storage resources. 
     
     
         14 . A computer-readable memory having instructions thereon that cause a computer processing unit, when carrying out the instructions, to map communicatively coupled network data queues with one or more communicatively coupled data storage resources on a data storage component, the network data queues being populated with data units depending on at least one data unit characteristic, the data units being communicated over a communications network via a network interface component that is communicatively coupled to the computer processing unit, the data storage resources being responsive to data transactions carried by data units. 
     
     
         15 . The computer-readable memory of  claim 14 , wherein the data storage resources comprise at least one of the following: at least one data storage medium, and at least one data transaction queue of one of the at least one data storage medium. 
     
     
         16 . The computer-readable memory of  claim 15 , wherein each of the at least one data storage medium comprises one of the following: a flash memory device, a spinning disk, and solid state disk. 
     
     
         17 . The computer-readable memory of  claim 14 , wherein each of a plurality of processing resources are assignable to one or more of the plurality of network data queues. 
     
     
         18 . A method for mapping network data queues with a plurality of data storage resources, each network data queue being populated with data units received and sent by at least one network interface port over a communication network, each network interface port being associated with at least one data network queue by a computer processor depending on at least one data unit characteristic of the data units, the method comprising:
 determining a first operational characteristic of at least one data storage resource related to a service requirement criteria of a first network data queue;   determining if the first operational characteristic is within a first operational threshold required for the service requirement criteria of the first network data queue, and if so, mapping the first network data queue to the at least one data storage resource; and   repeating each said determining step until all the data storage resources have been mapped to the network data queues.   
     
     
         19 . The method of  claim 18 , wherein the data storage resources comprise at least one of the following: at least one data storage media component, and at least one data transaction queue of at least one data storage media component. 
     
     
         20 . A network-accessible data storage system for processing data transactions received over the network, the system comprising:
 a communication interface to the network;   one or more data storage devices configured to respond to the data transactions received via said communication interface, said one or more data storage devices providing at least two data storage resources distinctly designated to accommodate respective data processing characteristics; and   a resource allocation engine operatively associated with said communication interface to receive as input a given data processing characteristic automatically identifiable from each of the data transactions and allocate a designated one of said data storage resources according to said given data processing characteristic in responding to each of the data transactions.   
     
     
         21 . The network-accessible data storage system of  claim 20 , wherein each of the data transactions is communicated via a selected one of multiple network data queues designated as a function of said respective data processing characteristics such that said given data processing characteristic is at least partially identifiable from said selected one of said multiple network data queues. 
     
     
         22 . The network-accessible data storage system of  claim 20 , wherein said communication interface defines distinct communication ports, wherein each of the data transactions is received via a designated one of said ports, and wherein said given data processing characteristic is at least partially identifiable from said designated port. 
     
     
         23 . The network-accessible data storage system of  claim 20 , wherein said data storage resources comprise at least two distinct data storage device types. 
     
     
         24 . The network-accessible data storage system of  claim 20 , wherein said data storage resources comprise at least two distinct storage data processing queues associated with a same data storage device. 
     
     
         25 . The network-accessible data storage system of  claim 20 , wherein said data processing characteristics comprise a data processing priority characteristic. 
     
     
         26 . The network-accessible data storage system of  claim 20 , wherein said data processing characteristics comprise at least one of a data processing latency characteristic and a data processing throughput characteristic. 
     
     
         27 . The network-accessible data storage system of  claim 20 , wherein said allocation engine is implemented via a direct application layer interface to said one or more data storage devices that bypasses said operating system layer. 
     
     
         28 . A computer-readable memory having instructions stored thereon that cause a computer processing unit, when carrying out the instructions, to automatically identify a data processing characteristic associated with a data transaction request received over a communication network, and allocate a designated data storage resource from multiple available data storage resources to said data transaction request according to said data processing characteristic to have said data transaction request processed via said designated data storage resource in accordance with said identified data processing characteristic.