Patent ID: 8139482

Claim:
A method of operating intelligent network interface circuitry, wherein the network interface circuitry couples a core processor to a network to facilitate communication over the network between the core processor and at least a first peer, wherein a first connection connects the core processor to the first peer, the method comprising: by the network interface circuitry, receiving data packets from the first peer via the network on the first connection, according to a first particular protocol; and processing the received data packets, wherein each of a plurality of connections couples the core processor to facilitate communication over the network between the core processor and a respective separate one of a plurality of peers, other than the first peer, the processing of the received data packets including selecting one of the plurality of connections as a second connection and associating, with the second connection, data that is at least a portion of the data packets received on the first connection, such that the data received by the intelligent network interface circuitry on the first connection is switched to be outgoing from the intelligent network interface circuitry on the second connection, according to a second particular protocol.