System and method for providing network access for a processing node

1. A network interface controller comprising:

a plurality of host interfaces, each host interface including a transmit buffer and a receive buffer configured to communicate with an associated processing node;

a plurality of network interfaces configured to provide network communication for the processing nodes to a network, each network interface associated with one host interface;

a shared resource configured to provide link based services and stateless offload services for the processing nodes when communicating with the network; and

a buffer manager configured to:

determine that a first data packet received from a first processing node on a first host interface of the plurality of host interfaces is addressed to the network;

pass the first data packet to a transmit buffer of the first host interface to be passed to a first network interface associated with the first host interface;

determine that a second data packet received from the first processing node on the first host interface is addressed to a second processing node;

determine that the second data packet is suitable for communication using Rack-level Remote Direct Memory Access (RRDMA); and

direct the second data packet to a second host interface of the plurality of host interfaces associated with the second processing node without passing the second data packet to a receive buffer of the second host interface in response to determining that the second data packet is suitable for communication using RRDMA.

2. The network interface controller of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of host interfaces comprise Peripheral Component Interconnect-Express (PCIe) interfaces.

3. The network interface controller of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of network interfaces each comprise a Media Access Control (MAC) layer and a physical (PHY) layer.

4. The network interface controller of claim 3 , wherein the PHY layer comprises an Ethernet PHY.

5. The network interface controller of claim 1 , wherein the shared resource comprises:

a buffer and queue block;

a link based services block;

a stateless offload services block;

a storage block; and

a management block.

6. The network interface controller of claim 5 , wherein the buffer and queue block comprises a plurality of buffers and queues, each of the plurality of buffers and queues being associated with a respective network interface of the plurality of network interfaces.

7. The network interface controller of claim 6 , wherein further the plurality of buffers and queues implement priority queues for network traffic for the plurality of network interfaces.

8. The network interface controller of claim 6 , wherein the plurality of buffers and queues is dynamically allocated between the plurality of network interfaces.

9. The network interface controller of claim 5 , wherein the link based services block provides priority based flow control for the plurality of network interfaces.

10. The network interface controller of claim 5 , wherein the link based services block provides congestion notification for the plurality of network interfaces.

11. The network interface controller of claim 5 , wherein the stateless offload services block provides at least one of a TCP segmentation offload, an IP checksum offload, Receive Side Scaling (RSS), and Large Send Offload (LSO).

12. The network interface controller of claim 5 , wherein the storage block stores a firmware that is common to the plurality of network interfaces.

13. The network interface controller of claim 5 , wherein the storage block stores network destination information for the plurality of network interfaces.

14. The network interface controller of claim 13 , wherein the network destination information comprises at least one of a unified address resolution protocol table and a neighbor discovery protocol table.

15. The network interface controller of claim 5 , wherein the management block provides set-up and tear-down services for the plurality of network interfaces.

16. The network interface controller of claim 1 , wherein the network interface controller supports an Open Fabrics alliance Enterprise Distribution (OFED) verbs Application Programming Interface (API).

17. The network interface controller of claim 16 , wherein the network interface controller further supports a Peripheral Component Interconnect-Express (PCIe) Transaction Layer Packet/Data Link Packet (TLP/DLP) interconnect.

18. The network interface controller of claim 1 , wherein the buffer manager is further configured, in response to determining that the second data packet is not suitable for communication using RRDMA, to:

determine that the second data packet is suitable for out-of-band communication;

direct the second data packet to a receive buffer of the second host interface in response to determining that the second data packet is suitable for out-of-band communication.

19. The network interface controller of claim 18 , wherein the buffer manager is further configured, in response to determining that the second data packet is not suitable for out-of-band communication, to:

direct the second data packet to a first network interface of plurality of network interfaces, the first network interface associated with the first processing node;

receive the second data packet via a second network interface of the plurality of network interfaces, the second network interface associated with the second processing node; and

direct the second data packet to the receive buffer of the second host interface.