Disk drive array synchronization via short-range rf signaling
AssigneeAT&T Intellectual Property I, L.P.
InventorMichael L. Asher
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A plurality of disk drives in a disk drive array are synchronized. A synchronization signal is generated at a master disk drive. The synchronization signal is encoded as a radio frequency signal for transmission over a radio frequency network in communication with the plurality of disk drives. The transmitted radio frequency signal is received at a slave disk drive and decoded to recover the synchronization signal. Rotation of a disk in the slave disk drive is synchronized with rotation of a disk in the master disk drive based on the recovered synchronization signal.
Claims20
A data storage system comprising:
- a plurality of disk drives, each disk drive in the plurality of disk drives in communication with a radio frequency network, at least one of the plurality of disk drives serving as a master disk drive and at least one of the plurality of disk drives serving as a slave disk drive;
- wherein the at least one master disk drive generates a synchronization signal based on a rotational position of at least one disk within the at least one master disk drive and encodes the synchronization signal as a radio frequency signal for transmission over the radio frequency network;
- and
- wherein the at least one slave disk drive receives the radio frequency signal, decodes the received radio frequency signal to recover the synchronization signal, and modifies a rotational position of at least one disk within the at least one slave disk drive based on the recovered synchronization signal.
A method of synchronizing a plurality of disk drives, comprising:
- generating a synchronization signal at a master disk drive in the plurality of disk drives;
- encoding the synchronization signal as a radio frequency signal;
- transmitting the radio frequency signal from the master disk drive;
- receiving the transmitted radio frequency signal at a slave disk drive in the plurality of disk drives;
- decoding the received radio frequency signal to recover the synchronization signal;
- and
- synchronizing rotation of at least one disk in the slave disk drive with rotation of at least one disk in the master disk drive based on the recovered synchronization signal.
A redundant array of independent disks (RAID), comprising:
- a radio frequency network;
- a master disk drive coupled to the radio frequency distribution network, the master disk drive transmitting a synchronization signal over the radio frequency network;
- and
- at least one slave disk drive coupled to the radio frequency network, the slave disk drive receiving the synchronization signal from the radio frequency network and synchronizing rotation of at least one disk with rotation of a least one disk in the master disk drive based on the received synchronization signal.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.