Cisco Technology, Inc.

Michael D Blair

Praveen Jain

Thomas Eric Ryle

Ganesh Sundaram

Marc Alan Bennett

Charles Allen Carriker

Hitesh Amin

Mangesh Shingane

John Diab

Cheyne Monroe Womble

Glenn C Ferris

In one embodiment a method is provided for requesting and receiving network statistics in-band of a data replication exchange. The method includes receiving, at a switch, a request packet, initiated from a data replication system, for in-band delivery of network statistics, modifying the request packet to include a command that can be processed by a data storage device that is periodically accessed in connection with the data replication system, sending the request packet including the command to the data storage device, receiving from the peripheral device, in response to the request packet including the command, a response packet that includes data responsive to the command, deleting from a data field of the response packet the data responsive to the command and adding to the data field network statistics data available to the switch, and sending the response packet including the network statistics data to one of another switch or a host device from which the request packet was sent.

In-band communication of network statistics over a FICON network

In network systems for transporting GFP-encapsulated FICON frames across a SONET/SDH transport network between FICON ports, the transport interfaces for the FICON ports operate to drop duplicate and out-of-order frames transported across the SONET/SDH network. The transmitting transport interface inserts a sequence number incremented with each FICON frame into said one or more transport frames, whereby the sequence number is used as an index for determining duplicate and out-of-order frames after transport over said SONET/SDH network. The receiving transport interface compares sequence numbers with each FICON frame to determine duplicate and out-of-order FICON frames, drops the duplicate and out-of-order FICON frames; and sends the balance of the compared FICON frames to the receiving FICON port.

Method and apparatus for guaranteed in-order delivery for FICON over SONET/SDH transport

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Cary, NC, United States of America

Michael D Blair