An apparatus and method for an advanced multiplexing technique to allow a
single host to support multiple Internet Protocol (IP) queue pairs with
little or no overhead are provided. With the apparatus and method, after
a queue pair is created, Internet Protocol filter attributes and values
are set up for the queue pair through value added features to the
standard InfiniBand "QP Modify" method. The IP filters are used during
normal operations to determine which queue pair is associated with an
incoming packet. During normal operations, when a channel adapter
receives an Internet Protocol (IP) over InfiniBand (IB) packet, it uses
one or more of several fields in the packet's transport and/or network
header to determine which queue pair shall receive the packet. Thus, the
host channel adapter uses the IP filters to route incoming packets to the
appropriate queue pair and thereby allow more than one queue pair to be
used to support IP.