Messaging between heterogeneous clients of a storage area network

Abstract

A cluster of computer system nodes connected by a storage area network transmit messages using a messaging protocol having multiple layers. The storage area network supports computer system nodes running different operating systems on different endian processors. A heartbeat signal is transmitted in a common wire format over the lowest level of the messaging protocol; however other messages between the nodes may be transmitted in a format different from the common wire format. The node receiving a message is responsible for converting the format as necessary in a layer just above the layer of the messaging protocol handling heartbeat signals. However, conversion may be performed by the sending node if the sending node knows the format used by the receiving node.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.