Brocade Communications Systems, Inc.

Avago Technologies International Sales Pte. Limited

Vineet M Abraham

Sathish Kumar Gnanasekaran

Balakumar N Kaushik

Rishi Amit Sinha

Vincent W Guan

Christopher A Del Signore

Pranab Patnaik

Ezio Valdevit

Badrinath Kollu

Amit Kanda

Bill Ying Chin

Bill Jianqiang Zhou

Ponpandiaraj Rajarathinam

Michael W Atkinson

Qingyuan Ma

William R Mahoney

Xupei Liang

Aditya Saxena

Subramanian Lakshmanan

Daniel Ji Yong Park Chung

Nhan Trong Pham

Shashank R Tadisina

Michael Gee

Rajnish Gupta

Raymond Yimin Lai

Sathish Gnanasekaren

Satish K Gnanasekaran

Amod K Dani

An interfabric link between two separate Fibre Channel fabrics so that devices in one fabric can communicate with devices in another fabric without requiring the merger of the two fabrics. The interfabric switch performs a conversion or a translation of device addresses in each fabric so that they are accessible to the other fabric. This translation is preferably done using a private to public loop address translation. In a first embodiment the external ports of the interfabric switch are configured as E_ports. A series of internal ports in each interfabric switch are joined together forming a series of virtual or logical switches. The virtual switches are then interconnected using private loops. The use of the private loop is enabled by the presence of translation logic which converts fabric addresses to loop addresses and back so that loop and fabric devices can communicate. Because each port can do this translation and the private loop addressing does not include domain or area information, the change in addresses between the fabrics is simplified. In a second embodiment the external ports are configured as NL_ports and the connections between the virtual switches are E_ports. Thus the private to public and public to private translations are done at the external ports rather than the internal ports as in the prior embodiment. The virtual switches in the interfabric switch match domains with their external counterparts so that the virtual switches effectively form their own fabric, connected to the other fabrics by the private loops.

Method and apparatus for routing between fibre channel fabrics

An interfabric link between two separate Fiber Channel fabrics so that devices in one fabric can communicate with devices in another fabric without requiring the merger of the two fabrics. The interfabric switch performs a conversion or a translation of device addresses in each fabric so that they are accessible to the other fabric. This translation is preferably done using a private to public loop address translation. In a first embodiment the external ports of the interfabric switch are configured as E_ports. A series of internal ports in each interfabric switch are joined together forming a series of virtual or logical switches. The virtual switches are then interconnected using private loops. The use of the private loop is enabled by the presence of translation logic which converts fabric addresses to loop addresses and back so that loop and fabric devices can communicate. Because each port can do this translation and the private loop addressing does not include domain or area information, the change in addresses between the fabrics is simplified. In a second embodiment the external ports are configured as NL_ports and the connections between the virtual switches are E_ports. Thus the private to public and public to private translations are done at the external ports rather than the internal ports as in the prior embodiment. The virtual switches in the interfabric switch match domains with their external counterparts so that the virtual switches effectively form their own fabric, connected to the other fabrics by the private loops.

Back pressure is mapped within a network, and primary bottlenecks are distinguished from dependent bottlenecks. Further, the presently disclosed technology is capable of performing network healing operations designed to reduce the data load on primary bottlenecks while ignoring dependent bottlenecks. Still further, the presently disclosed technology teaches identifying and/or suggesting a switch port for adding a node to the network. More specifically, various implementations analyze traffic load and back pressure in a network, identify primary and dependent bottlenecks, resolve the primary bottlenecks, collect new node parameters, and/or select a switch port for the new node. Further, a command can be sent to a selected switch to activate an indicator on the selected port. New node parameters may include new node type, maximum load, minimum load, time of maximum load, time of minimum load and type of data associated with the new node.

Back pressure remediation

One embodiment of the present invention provides a system that facilitates congestion management in a Fibre Channel (FC) network. During operation, the system determines a threshold data rate on an outgoing link coupled to an FC switch. The system further determines the number of sources that send data to the outgoing link and an aggregate arrival rate of data for the outgoing link. Next, the system determines an injection data rate for a respective source based on the threshold data rate on the outgoing link, the number of sources transmitting data to the outgoing link, and the aggregate arrival data rate for the outgoing link. Subsequently, the system communicates the injection data rate to the source, thereby allowing the source to throttle its data injection in the FC network to prevent network congestion.

Method and system for congestion management in a fibre channel network

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

Techniques are provided for monitoring and diagnosis of a network comprising one or more devices. In some embodiments, techniques are provided for gathering network information, analyzing the gathered information to identify correlations, and for diagnosing a problem based upon the correlations. The diagnosis may identify a root cause of the problem. In certain embodiments, a computing device may be configurable to determine a first event from information, allocate a first event to a first cluster, the first cluster is from one or more clusters of events, based on a set of attributes for the first event, and determine a set of attributes for the first cluster, and rank the first cluster against the other clusters from the one or more clusters of events based on the set of attributes for the first cluster. The set of attributes may be indicative of the relationship between events in the cluster. In some embodiments, one or more recommendations may be provided for taking preventative or corrective actions for the problem.

Network monitoring and diagnostics

An interfabric link between two separate Fiber Channel fabrics so that devices in one fabric can communicate with devices in another fabric without requiring the merger of the two fabrics. The interfabric switch performs a conversion or a translation of device addresses in each fabric so that they are accessible to the other fabric. In a first embodiment the external ports of the interfabric switch are configured as E_ports. A series of internal ports in each interfabric switch are joined together forming a series of virtual or logical switches. In a second embodiment the external ports are configured as NL_ports and the connections between the virtual switches are E_ports. The virtual switches in the interfabric switch match domains with their external counterparts so that the virtual switches effectively form their own fabric.

Techniques for achieving high-availability using a single processor (CPU). In a system comprising a multi-core processor, at least two partitions may be configured with each partition being allocated one or more cores of the multiple cores. The partitions may be configured such that one partition operates in active mode while another partition operates in standby mode. In this manner, a single processor is able to provide active-standby functionality, thereby enhancing the availability of the system comprising the processor.

Achieving ultra-high availability using a single CPU

One embodiment of the present invention provides a system that facilitates quality of service (QoS) in a Fiber Channel (FC) network. During operation, a host bus adaptor (HBA) allocates the bandwidth on an FC link between the HBA and an FC switch into a plurality of logical channels, wherein a respective logical channel can transport data frames of variable length. Furthermore, a respective logical channel is associated with a dedicated buffer on the HBA. The HBA associates data frames from a logical entity associated with the HBA with a logical channel, and transmits data frames from the logical entity to the FC switch on the corresponding logical channel within the link from the HBA to the FC switch.

Method and system for facilitating application-oriented quality of service in a fibre channel network

Presentation of a selected port

Automatic switch port selection

One embodiment of the present invention provides a system that facilitates traffic management in a network. During operation, the system detects a bottleneck in a network based on network-state information received from one or more switches. The system further identifies a data flow that contributes to the bottleneck and generates a signal to reduce the data flow from the data flow's source device.

Method and system for traffic management

A network comprises a plurality of interconnected switches that implement a topology database synchronization technique in which each switch determines whether its topology database has already been transmitted to a neighboring switch when a new link is formed to the neighboring switch. When a new electrical connection is detected, the local switch determines whether any of its other ports have already been connected to the same neighboring switch. If no other port on the local switch has been connected to the neighboring switch, the local switch transmits its topology database to the neighboring switch. If the local switch determines that it has already been connected to the neighboring switch via another one of its ports, the local switch does not yet again copy of the database to the neighboring switch. Also, link state record updates are propagated via only one inter-switch link to a neighboring switch, not all possible links.

Topology database synchronization

F_PORTs of an edge switch are logically trunking with N_PORTs of a node device outside the fabric via a trunked group of communications links. The trunked N_PORTs of the node device and the trunked F_PORTs of the edge switch are configured to send and receive frames of a particular stream across the multiple trunked links for in-order communication with the other device. The node device outside the fabric initially negotiates with the edge switch using a sequence of fabric login requests and fabric login acceptances to establish the trunked connection between the devices (and their respective ports).

Growing community of inventors

San Jose, CA, United States of America

Vineet M Abraham