An apparatus for transmitting a plurality of data streams is provided, having a scheduling unit for selecting a data stream as a selected data stream and a transmission unit for transmitting the selected data stream. The scheduling unit is configured to select the selected data stream depending on scheduling information and a counter value, the scheduling information having a plurality of scheduling elements. A data stream is assigned to each scheduling element, wherein the data stream information of the scheduling element is data stream information for the data stream assigned to the scheduling element. A selection criterion is fulfilled or not fulfilled depending on the selection information of each scheduling element and the counter value. Depending on an order of the plurality of scheduling elements, the scheduling unit is configured to select, as the selected data stream, a data stream, which is assigned to a selection element, for which the selection criterion is fulfilled. The scheduling unit is configured to determine for at least one scheduling element, whether or not the selection criterion is fulfilled.

Systems and methods are provided for managing a data communication within a multi-level network having a plurality of switches organized as groups, with each group coupled to all other groups via global links, including: at each switch within the network, maintaining a global fault table identifying the links which lead only to faulty global paths, and when the data communication is received at a port of a switch, determine a destination for the data communication and, route the communication across the network using the global fault table to avoid selecting a port within the switch that would result in the communication arriving at a point in the network where its only path forward is across a global link that is faulty; wherein the global fault table is used for both a global minimal routing methodology and a global non-minimal routing methodology.

In one embodiment, a device includes an interface to send and receive packets of network flows, and processing circuitry to track a connection status of each of the network flows, selectively assign some network flows of the network flows having a non-terminated connection status to a flow aging process based on a statistical model of connection termination, operate the flow aging process to identify idle network flows of the some network flows, and release resources associated with the idle network flows.

A first command is scheduled on a command bus, where the first command requires use of a data bus resource at a first time period after scheduling the first command. Prior to the first time period, a second command is identified according to a scheduling policy. A determination is made whether scheduling the second command on the command bus will cause a conflict in usage of the at least one data bus resource. In response to determining that scheduling the second command will cause the conflict in usage, a third lower-priority command is identified for which scheduling on the command bus will not cause the conflict in usage. The third command is scheduled on the command bus prior to scheduling the second command, even though it has lower priority than the second command.

A network interface controller (NIC) capable of efficient management of non-idempotent operations is provided. The NIC can be equipped with a network interface, storage management logic block, and an operation management logic block. During operation, the network interface can receive a request for an operation from a remote device. The storage management logic block can store, in a local data structure, outcome of operations executed by the NIC. The operation management logic block can determine whether the NIC has previously executed the operation. If the NIC has previously executed the operation, the operation management logic block can obtain an outcome of the operation from the data structure and generate a response comprising the obtained outcome for responding to the request.

Systems and methods are provided for passing data amongst a plurality of switches having a plurality of links attached between the plurality of switches. At a switch, a plurality of load signals are received from a plurality of neighboring switches. Each of the plurality of load signals are made up of a set of values indicative of a load at each of the plurality of neighboring switches providing the load signal. Each value within the set of values provides an indication for each link of the plurality of links attached thereto as to whether the link is busy or quiet. Based upon the plurality of load signals, an output link for routing a received packet is selected, and the received packet is routed via the selected output link.

In one embodiment, a device includes an interface to send and receive packets of network flows, and processing circuitry to track a connection status of each of the network flows, selectively assign some network flows of the network flows having a non-terminated connection status to a flow aging process based on a statistical model of connection termination, operate the flow aging process to identify idle network flows of the some network flows, and release resources associated with the idle network flows.

A network interface controller (NIC) capable of hybrid message matching is provided. The NIC can be equipped with a host interface, a hardware endpoint, and an endpoint management logic block. The host interface can couple the NIC to a host device. The hardware endpoint can facilitate a point of communication for an application running on the host device. The endpoint management logic block can maintain a list for storing a message associated with an endpoint represented by the hardware endpoint. The endpoint management logic block can then determine whether the utilization of the list is higher than a threshold. If the utilization is higher than the threshold, the endpoint management logic block can set a state of the endpoint to indicate that the endpoint is software managed. The NIC thus can transfer the control of the endpoint from the hardware endpoint to a software process of the host device.

Data-driven intelligent networking systems and methods are provided. The system can accommodate dynamic traffic with fast, effective congestion control. The system can maintain state information of individual packet flows, which can be set up or released dynamically based on injected data. Each flow can be provided with a flow-specific input queue upon arriving at a switch. Packets of a respective flow can be acknowledged after reaching the egress point of the network, and the acknowledgement packets can be sent back to the ingress point of the flow along the same data path. As a result, each switch can obtain state information of each flow and perform flow control on a per-flow basis.

Methods and systems are provided to facilitate network egress fairness between applications. At an egress port of a network, an arbitrator can provide fairness-based traffic shaping to data associated with applications. The desired fairness-based traffic shaping can be provided based on bandwidth, traffic classes, or other parameters. Consequently, the egress link's bandwidth can be allocated with fairness among the applications.