US 7760733

A detailed analysis of U.S. Patent 7,760,733 reveals a technology focused on enhancing network efficiency by offloading packet filtering tasks to the network interface card (NIC), a hardware component. This approach is designed to reduce the processing load on a host computer's main processor.

Patent Number: US 7,760,733 B1

Title: Filtering ingress packets in network interface circuitry

Assignee: Chelsio Communications, Inc.

Inventors: Asgeir Thor Eiriksson, Chris Yuhong Mao

Filing Date: October 13, 2005

Issue Date: July 20, 2010

Abstract: The patent describes a method for managing data transfer between a peer application and a host computer through network interface circuitry. This circuitry, often a NIC, can offload data processing from the host for specific protocols. The core of the invention lies in applying filtering rules to incoming data based on its characteristics before it is passed to the host. When multiple filtering rules could apply, the system is designed to automatically determine the appropriate rule to use.

Plain-Language Overview of Independent Claims:

The independent claims of a patent define the core of the invention in the broadest terms. Here is a simplified explanation of each independent claim in US 7,760,733:

• Independent Claim 1: This claim outlines a method for network interface hardware to prioritize how it handles incoming data. The hardware can either "filter" the data (e.g., block or modify it) or perform "protocol processing" for connections that have been offloaded from the main computer to the network card for faster handling. The system uses a predefined order to decide which action takes precedence, with the offloaded protocol processing being the higher priority.

• Independent Claim 9: This claim focuses on a method for network interface hardware that is already handling offloaded connections. When new data arrives, the hardware first checks if it belongs to one of these offloaded connections. If so, it processes it accordingly. If the data does not belong to an offloaded connection, the hardware then looks for a matching filtering rule and applies the one with the highest priority based on a predetermined order.

• Independent Claim 12: This claim describes the physical network interface circuitry itself. It specifies that the hardware is built with the capability to receive data and determine the highest priority action to take—either protocol processing for an offloaded connection or filtering for all other data. A key aspect of the circuitry is its ability to selectively prevent data from ever reaching the host computer if a filtering rule dictates it should be blocked.

• Independent Claim 18: This claim is largely similar to claim 1, detailing a method for network interface hardware to process incoming data by choosing a "highest priority" action from a list that includes filtering and offloaded protocol processing. The decision is made by lookup circuitry that automatically gives preference to protocol processing for offloaded connections over the application of filtering rules.

CAFC Litigation:

A thorough search of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC) dockets for the year 2026 reveals no pending or decided cases specifically involving US Patent 7,760,733. Further investigation into litigation involving the assignee, Chelsio Communications, Inc., in the same timeframe also did not yield any results pertinent to this patent. Therefore, as of the current date, there is no indication of recent appellate-level litigation concerning this patent.