Patent ID: 8886816

Claim:
A method for detecting, associating, and establishing an optimal I/O system resource virtualization protocol between a host system and a virtualized I/O system resource on a network, comprising: enabling a host system for network connectivity and analysis, where the host system is automatically configured as a protocol client or as both a protocol server and a protocol client, depending on the presence or absence of an existing protocol server; enabling a utility configured to execute a network probing algorithm on the network; and enabling a software configuration function responsive to the utility and configured to assign one of a plurality of I/O system resource virtualization protocols as an optimal I/O system resource virtualization protocol for subsequent data transactions between the host system and the virtualized I/O system resource, wherein the assigned I/O system resource virtualization protocol is assigned as a function of an OSI layer associated with the plurality of virtualization protocols, where the plurality of I/O system resource virtualization protocols includes one of PCIe I/O Virtualization (IOV), i-PCI, i(e)-PCI, and i(dc)-PCI, wherein the host system automatic configuration is the result of various factors, including a topology of the network, location of the virtualized I/O system resource in relation to the topology, and the available I/O system resource virtualization protocols.