Patent attributes
Methods and systems are disclosed to aggregate traffic from multiple server devices through a peripheral component interconnect (PCI) hosting device. In one embodiment, the PCI hosting device comprises a network interface to couple the PCI hosting device to a network, a plurality of PCI interfaces, a processing circuit to forward packets, and a power supply to supply power to the PCI interfaces independently from the plurality of server devices. Each of the PCI interfaces is designed to be coupled to one server device to the PCI hosting device, which is registered as a first PCI board of a first server device through a first PCI interface and as a second PCI board of a second server device through a second PCI interface, and the PCI hosting device is designed to forward packets between the network interface and the first server device, and the network interface and the second server device.