IP Library Granted Patent US 9,223,392
Granted Patent B2
US 9,223,392 · App. 13/953,160 · Granted Dec 29, 2015

Reduced power state network processing

Inventor: Kapil Sood (Beaverton, OR)
Assignee: Intel Corporation
G06F1/3293G06F1/3209G06F1/3287H04L12/10H04L49/90Y02B60/1282Y02B60/32
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Quick Facts
Patent No.
US 9,223,392
App. No.
13/953,160
Granted
Dec 29, 2015
Kind
B2
Abstract

Technologies for reduced power network processing include a main processor, a low-power co-processor, and a network interface controller. The network interface controller receives one or more network packets while the computing device is in a sleep state, filters the one or more network packets to identify network packets to be handled by the low-power co-processor without waking the main processor from the sleep state, and wakes the low-power co-processor, without waking the main processor, to handle at least one network packet of the identified network packets to be handled by the low-power co-processor.

Claims (43)

1. A computing device for operating in a sleep state, the computing device comprising:

a main processor;

a first low-power co-processor;

a second low-power co-processor; and

a network interface controller to (i) receive one or more network packets while the computing device is in a sleep state, (ii) filter the one or more network packets to identify network packets to be handled by the first low-power co-processor without waking the main processor from the sleep state, and (iii) wake the first low-power co-processor, without waking the main processor, to handle at least one network packet of the identified network packets to be handled by the first low-power co-processor,

wherein the first low-power co-processor is to filter the filtered one or more network packets to identify network packets to be handled by the second low-power co-processor of the computing device without waking the main processor from the sleep state.

2. The computing device of claim 1 , wherein the first low-power co-processor comprises a manageability engine to provide remote administration of the computing device.

3. The computing device of claim 1 , wherein each of the main processor and the first low-power co-processor is to operate in a low-power state when in the sleep state.

4. The computing device of claim 1 , wherein:

the network interface controller is to (i) filter the one or more network packets to identify network packets to be handled by the second low-power co-processor without waking the main processor from the sleep state and (ii) wake the second low-power co-processor, without waking the main processor or the first low-power co-processor, to handle at least one network packet of the network packets identified to be handled by the second low-power co-processor.

5. The computing device of claim 1 , wherein the first low-power co-processor is to process at least one of a link layer protocol packet, an Internet layer protocol packet, a transport layer protocol packet, or an application layer protocol packet.

6. One or more non-transitory machine-readable storage media comprising a plurality of instructions stored thereon that, in response to execution, cause a computing device operating in a sleep state to:

receive, by a network interface controller, one or more network packets while the computing device is in the sleep state;

filter, by the network interface controller, the one or more network packets to identify network packets to be handled by a first processing core of the computing device without waking a main processor of the computing device from the sleep state;

wake, by the network interface controller, the first processing core, without waking the main processor, to handle at least one network packet of the identified network packets; and

filter, by the first processing core, the filtered one or more network packets to identify network packets to be handled by a second processing core of the computing device without waking the main processor from the sleep state.

7. The one or more non-transitory machine-readable storage media of claim 6 , wherein the network interface controller includes the first processing core.

8. The one or more non-transitory machine-readable storage media of claim 7 ,

wherein the plurality of instructions further cause the computing device to handle, by a second processing core of the computing device, the one or more received network packets while the main processor and the first processing core are in the sleep state.

9. The one or more non-transitory machine-readable storage media of claim 6 , wherein to wake the main processor comprises to wake one or more processing cores of the main processor from the sleep state.

10. The one or more non-transitory machine-readable storage media of claim 6 , wherein the first processing core is a processing core of a low-power co-processor of the computing device.

11. The one or more non-transitory machine-readable storage media of claim 6 , wherein the plurality of instructions further cause the computing device to:

filter the one or more network packets to identify network packets to be handled by a second processing core of the computing device without waking the main processor from the sleep state; and

wake the second processing core, without waking the main processor or the first processing core, to handle at least one network packet of the network packets identified to be handled by the second processing core.

12. The one or more non-transitory machine-readable storage media of claim 6 , wherein each of the main processor and the first processing core are to operate in a low-power state when in the sleep state.

13. The one or more non-transitory machine-readable storage media of claim 6 , wherein the computing device comprises a low-power virtual machine to implement the first processing core.

14. The one or more non-transitory machine-readable storage media of claim 6 , wherein the first processor core is a low-power core of the main processor; and

wherein to wake the main processor comprises to wake a processing core of the main processor other than the low-power core.

15. A method for operating a computing device in a sleep state, the method comprising:

receiving, by a network interface controller of the computing device, one or more network packets while the computing device is in a sleep state;

filtering, by the network interface controller and without waking a main processor of the computing device from the sleep state, the one or more network packets to identify network packets to be responded to by a first low-power co-processor of the computing device;

waking, by the network interface controller and without waking the main processor, the first low-power co-processor to respond to at least one network packet of the identified network packets; and

filtering, by the first low-power co-processor, the filtered one or more network packets to identify network packets to be responded to by a second low-power co-processor of the computing device without waking the main processor from the sleep state.

16. The method of claim 15 , further comprising:

filtering, by the network interface controller, the one or more network packets to identify network packets to be handled by the second low-power co-processor without waking the main processor from the sleep state; and

waking the second low-power co-processor, without waking the main processor or the first low-power co-processor from the sleep state, to handle at least one network packet of the network packets identified to be handled by the second low-power co-processor.

17. The method of claim 15 , wherein filtering the one or more network packets to identify network packets to be responded to by the first low-power co-processor comprises determining whether each of the one or more network packets is one of a link layer protocol packet, an Internet layer protocol packet, a transport layer protocol packet, or an application layer protocol packet.

18. The method of claim 15 , wherein receiving the one or more network packets comprises receiving one or more network packets while the computing device is in a low-power state.

19. A computing device for operating in a sleep state, the computing device comprising:

a main processor;

a first low-power co-processor;

a second low-power co-processor; and

a network interface controller to (i) receive one or more network packets while the computing device is in a sleep state, (ii) filter the one or more network packets to identify network packets to be handled by the first low-power co-processor without waking the main processor from the sleep state and to identify network packets to be handled by the second low-power co-processor without waking the main processor from the sleep state, (iii) wake the first low-power co-processor, without waking the main processor or the second low-power co-processor, to handle at least one network packet of the identified network packets to be handled by the first low-power co-processor, and (iv) wake the second low-power co-processor, without waking the main processor or the first low-power co-processor, to handle at least one network packet of the network packets identified to be handled by the second low-power co-processor.

Continuity (2)
Continuation 12346125 · Dec 30, 2008
Related Publication 20130311809A1 · Nov 21, 2013