Patent ID: 7889734
Filing Date: 2011-02-15
Classification: H04L

Abstract:
1. A method for arbitrarily mapping network functions or individual sessions to preassigned processing entities in a network system, the method comprising: providing a plurality of processing entities; providing a plurality of memory units defining a plurality of memory regions, each memory region logically connected to said plurality of processing entities; receiving a plurality of data flows via a network interface unit, wherein each of said plurality of data flows comprises a plurality of packets; for each of said plurality of data flows, performing a classification on said plurality of packets of the data flow in accordance with a predetermined function or session associated with said data flow, wherein performing said classification comprises, for a given packet of said plurality of packets, generating an indication that said given packet is to be processed by a particular processing partition of a plurality of processing partitions that share said network interface unit, wherein each of said processing partitions comprises at least one of said processing entities dedicated to said particular processing partition and at least one of said memory regions dedicated to said particular processing partition, wherein generating the indication is based upon the association of said data flow with the predetermined function or session; for a given data flow of said plurality of data flows, initiating processing of the given data flow on the specific processing partition specified by the indications generated for packets of the given data flow during said classification; detecting that a performance degradation of a processing entity dedicated to the specific processing partition is causing a delay in the processing of the given data flow; and responsive to said detecting, reassigning an other processing entity from a different processing partition to said specific processing partition to diminish said delay.