Scatter Gather List Integrity Verification
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current data communication systems fail to effectively protect operations or commands generated by software from corruption during transfer to peripheral devices, particularly in scatter gather lists, leading to data integrity issues and system instability.
Innovation Solution
A method and system that generate and verify protected messages with protected scatter gather lists by calculating and using protection values as seeds for each scatter gather list element, ensuring data integrity by checking the integrity of command and scatter gather list elements before processing.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If scatter gather lists are used to move data to sparse memory locations, then data transfer efficiency is improved, but data integrity protection is worsened
Solution Approach 1:
The scatter gather list is divided into multiple elements, each containing specific buffer location information and control data. Each element can be individually protected with integrity checks, allowing the system to maintain the flexibility of sparse memory access while ensuring data integrity at each segment level.
Solution Approach 2:
An intermediary integrity protection mechanism is introduced between the software command generation and the peripheral device execution. This intermediary layer verifies the integrity of scatter gather list elements before they are executed, preventing corrupted data from causing system instability while allowing efficient data transfer to proceed.
2Reliability
If end-to-end data protection methods like T10 DIF are used, then data protection is improved, but the ability to identify and isolate corrupted data is worsened
Solution Approach 1:
The protection mechanism is segmented at the scatter gather list element level, allowing individual elements to be verified for integrity. This segmentation enables the system to identify which specific element is corrupted and isolate it from the rest of the data transfer operation, rather than having to reject the entire transfer.
Solution Approach 2:
Integrity verification feedback is provided for each scatter gather list element, allowing the system to detect and report corrupted elements. This feedback mechanism enables selective handling of corrupted data while maintaining the ability to proceed with valid data transfer operations.
3Device complexity
If scatter gather list elements are not protected, then system complexity is reduced, but system stability is worsened
Solution Approach 1:
Integrity protection measures are applied preliminarily to scatter gather list elements before they are executed by the peripheral device. This preliminary verification ensures that only valid, uncorrupted data is transferred to memory, preventing system instability while adding minimal complexity to the data transfer process.
Data Source
AI summary
A system and method for improving message passing between a computer and peripheral devices is disclosed. The system and method for improving message passing between a computer and peripheral devices incorporate data checking on the command/message data and each scatter gather list element. The method in accordance with the present disclosure enables a peripheral device to check the integrity of the message and ownership of the scatter gather list element before the data is processed.