Patent ID: 7607168

Claim:
A system, comprising: a physical network interface card, operatively connected to a network, comprising a plurality of receive rings, and configured to: receive at least one packet from the network, determine whether the at least one packet is encrypted, and upon determining that the at least one packet is encrypted, decrypt the at least one packet to obtain at least one decrypted packet, classify the at least one decrypted packet to obtain at least one classified packet, and direct the at least one classified data packet to at least one of the plurality of receive rings; and a host system, operatively connected to the physical network interface card, comprising a plurality of virtual serialization queues and a plurality of virtual network interface cards operatively connected to the plurality of virtual serialization queues, wherein each of the plurality of virtual network interface cards is associated with a distinct internet protocol (IP) address, wherein each of the plurality of virtual network interface cards is associated with at least one of the plurality of receive rings, and wherein each of the plurality of virtual serialization queues is arranged to receive data packets from at least one of the plurality of receive rings.