Method of flow based services for flash storage

A method for use with a packet routing network configured to route packets between endpoints coupled to the network, based at least in part upon destination endpoint address information within packets transmitted through the network, wherein one or more endpoints includes Flash storage that includes Flash storage locations, comprising:

• providing multiple endpoints configured to impart services to packets to alter packet payload content stored at one or more LUNs, wherein at least some of the endpoints are configured to impart services that are different from services imparted by other of the endpoints;
• providing a distributed routing structure that includes respective information structures stored in storage devices disposed at respective endpoints that associate one or more of flow identifier-next hop destination endpoint addresses pairs, wherein combinations of flow identifier-next hop destination endpoint addresses pairs disposed at different endpoints define multiple respective sequences of endpoints, wherein respective sequences of endpoints include one or more of the endpoints configured to impart one or more services to alter packet payload content stored at one or more LUNs and an endpoint that includes Flash storage that includes the one or more LUNs;
• receiving packets from an external network;
• for one or more of the received packets,
• determining whether to associate the received packet with a respective defined sequence of endpoints, based at least in part upon a Flash storage location associated with the received packet;
• in response to determining to associate the received packet with a respective defined sequence of endpoints, inserting a respective flow identifier within the received packet that corresponds to a respective defined sequence that the received packet is determined to associate with, propagating the received packet through that associated sequence of endpoints;
• wherein propagating includes, receiving the packet in sequence order at each endpoint of the associated respective sequence of endpoints;
• at each respective endpoint of the sequence that is associated with one or more respective routing structure portions, using the flow identifier inserted in the packet to identify a matching flow identifier-next hop destination endpoint addresses pair, and modifying a current destination endpoint address within the received packet to include a next hop destination endpoint address from the matching pair;
• at each endpoint of the sequence that is associated with a respective routing structure portion, transmitting the received packet with its modified next hop destination endpoint address on to the packet routing network;
• and
• in the course of propagating the received packet through the associated sequence of endpoints, at one or more successive endpoints that are configured to impart one or more services to alter packet payload content stored at one more LUNs, successively imparting those one or more services to the received packet to alter packet payload content stored at the one or more LUNs of the FLASH storage.