International Business Machines Corporation

Peter Connley Lancaster

Craig Anthony Klein

Robert George Emberty

Jonathan Wade Ain

A system and method for measuring data transmission activity through a port of a switch device interconnecting nodes of a storage area network, the port transmitting data as words of predetermined length, one data word indicating idle port activity. The method includes steps of: counting a number of transmitted words received from the port in a first counter device; and, for each word counted, comparing that word with a predetermined word indicating no (idle) port transmission activity. In response to the comparing, a number of matches are counted in a second counter device. In this manner, a ratio of a number of counted matches with a total amount of words counted indicates available bandwidth for transmitting additional data over that link. Preferably, this available bandwidth information is included in a link state record that the switch communicates to other switch devices interconnecting that link. Processing devices at the switches determine a link cost factor, based on the available bandwidth of that link and, in addition, the link speed, the cost factor being used to optimize path selection over links in the network according to a path routing algorithm.

System and method for selecting fibre channel switched fabric frame paths

An error logging and analysis system is used to detect a type of error condition, assign a numeric value corresponding to the severity of the error condition, record the time of the error condition, and determine the frequency between subsequent error conditions of the same type. A weighted error rate is generated as a function of the severity of the initial error condition, the frequency of subsequent error conditions, and a percentage of any preceding weighted error rates. These weighted error rates are compared to a predetermined threshold to determine if the error condition is statistically significant.

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Tucson, AZ, United States of America

Peter Connley Lancaster