Brocade Communications Systems, Inc.

Shashank R Tadisina

Sathish Kumar Gnanasekaran

Subramanian Lakshmanan

Vineet M Abraham

Daniel Ji Yong Park Chung

Ethan John Cardwell

Raymond Yimin Lai

One embodiment of the present invention provides a system that facilitates traffic isolation (TI) in a network. During operation, the system configures a set of switch ports as members of a TI zone. The switch ports are part of an end-to-end path across one or more switch domains between a source and a destination. The switch ports within the TI zone and outside the TI Zone belong to a common storage area network (SAN) zone which compartmentalizes data for security purposes. The system then determines whether a data flow entering a switch domain belongs to the TI zone. The system subsequently forwards the data flow to the next port within the TI zone if the data flow belongs to the TI zone.

Method and system for traffic isolation in a network

A Layer 2 network switch is partitionable into a plurality of switch fabrics. The single-chassis switch is partitionable into a plurality of logical switches, each associated with one of the virtual fabrics. The logical switches behave as complete and self-contained switches. A logical switch fabric can span multiple single-chassis switch chassis. Logical switches are connected by inter-switch links that can be either dedicated single-chassis links or logical links. An extended inter-switch link can be used to transport traffic for one or more logical inter-switch links. Physical ports of the chassis are assigned to logical switches and are managed by the logical switch. Legacy switches that are not partitionable into logical switches can serve as transit switches between two logical switches.

Mapping logical ports of a network switch to physical ports

A Layer 2 network switch fabric is partitionable into a plurality of virtual fabrics. A network switch chassis is partitionable into a plurality of logical switches, each of which may be associated with one of the virtual fabrics, including a base switch. Logical switches in multiple network switch chassis are connected by logical connections, such as logical inter-switch links that use physical connections, such as extended inter-switch links between base switches, for data transport. A topology of logical connections is established that balances competing metrics, such as robustness and scalability, while maintaining alignment with the topology of the physical connections. A topology factor allows establishing different topologies with different balances between the competing metrics.

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San Jose, CA, United States of America

Shashank R Tadisina