Patent ID: 7885257

Claim:
A non-transitory computer readable medium comprising software instructions, when executed by a processor, perform a method for processing packets, the method comprising: receiving a first packet for a first target by a network interface card (NIC); classifying the first packet; sending the first packet to a first receive ring in the NIC based on the classification of the first packet; sending the first packet to a Network Layer from the first receive ring; sending a first virtual network stack (VNS) Instance ID associated with the first receive ring to the Network Layer; obtaining a first VNS Instance parameter using the first VNS Instance ID; and processing the first packet in the Network Layer using the first VNS Instance parameter to obtain a first network processed packet; receiving a second packet for a second target by the NIC; classifying the second packet; sending the second packet to a second receive ring in the NIC based on the classification of the second packet; sending the second packet to the Network Layer from the second receive ring; sending a second VNS Instance ID associated with the second receive ring to the Network Layer; obtaining a second VNS Instance parameter using the second VNS Instance ID; and processing the second packet in the Network Layer using the second VNS Instance parameter to obtain a second network processed packet.