Patent ID: 7581021

Claim:
A processor node of a network, comprising: one or more processors; and a virtualized channel adapter, the virtualized channel adapter operable to reference a table to determine whether a destination of a communication is supported by the virtualized channel adapter; when the destination is supported for routing via hardware, the virtualized channel adapter being operable to route the communication via hardware to at least one of a physical port and a logical port of the virtualized channel adapter; and when the destination is not supported for routing via hardware, the virtualized channel adapter being operable to route the communication via firmware to a virtual port of the virtualized channel adapter, the virtualized channel adapter being further operable to assign a first queue pair and a second queue pair to a logical partition (LPAR), the first queue pair being assigned for use as a queue pair QP 0 for recording and handling Changes or events affecting the operation of a subnet, and the second queue pair being assigned for use as a queue pair QP 1 for recording and handling architected general service interface (GSI) entries, the first and second queue pairs being assigned from a pool of physical queue pairs allocated to the virtualized channel adapter and having arbitrary physical queue pair numbers, the first and second queue pairs being assigned an alias QP 0 identifier and an alias QP 1 identifier, respectively.