Brocade Communications Systems, Inc.

Vidya Renganarayanan

Richard L Hammons

James Kleinsteiber

Hung Phi Nguyen

Sathish Kumar Gnanasekaran

Shankar Balasubramanian

Dennis Hideo Makishima

Vidya Sagar Ravipati

Anil Kumar Chintalapati

Daniel Ji Young Park Chung

One embodiment of the present invention provides a system for mapping all possible paths between a source node and a destination node. During operation, the system receives a management frame, determines all possible next-hop nodes based on a destination address carried in the payload of the management frame. The system then selects one of the next-hop nodes, and modifies payload of the received management frame to include information associated with the next-hop nodes and the selected next-hop node. The system then forwards the modified data frame to the selected next-hop node.

Path diagnosis in communication networks

A network configuration device or entity has control of defined management and security functions in the network, or in many embodiments, in a Fiber Channel fabric. The network configuration device may control many functions. Foremost, it may control the recognition, operation and succession procedure for network configuration entities. It may also control user configurable options for the network, rules for interaction between other entities in the network, rules governing management-level access to the network, and rules governing management-level access to individual devices in the network. In addition, the network configuration entity may exploit policy sets to implement its control.

Network security through configuration servers in the fabric environment

A secure and distributed time service is discussed for use in a network. In particular, the invention relates to Fiber Channel networks and the secure distribution of time service using a push model. In order to distribute time on a push model, one entity assumes responsibility for time in the network. Other entities in the network receive periodic time updates and check the validity of their own time by gauging the elapsed time since the previous time update. The time service is secured using by applying a unique combination of encryption techniques.

Secure distributed time service in the fabric environment

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Santa Clara, CA, United States of America

Vidya Renganarayanan