Bridge apparatus and methods for coupling multiple non-fibre channel devices to a fibre channel arbitrated loop
AssigneeLSI Corporation
InventorsJames W. Keeley, Douglas E. Sanders, Andrew Hyonil Chong
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Apparatus and methods for an enhanced bridge device for coupling multiple non-Fibre Channel storage devices to a Fibre Channel Arbitrated Loop (FC-AL) communication medium. Features and aspects hereof provide for FC-AL enhanced circuits for processing loop port bypass (LPB) and loop port enable (LPE) primitive sequences addressed to any target arbitrated loop physical address (T-ALPA) associated with a storage device coupled with the bridge regardless of the present bypassed/non-bypassed status of other T-ALPAs processed by the bridge device and associated with other storage devices coupled with the bridge device.
Claims17
A Fibre Channel bridge device comprising:
- a Fibre Channel interface circuit for coupling with a Fibre Channel arbitrated loop (FC-AL) wherein the interface is adapted to respond to multiple target arbitrated loop physical addresses (T-ALPAs);
- a back-end interface circuit adapted to couple with a plurality of storage devices wherein the plurality of storage devices are not FC-AL storage devices;
- and
- a bypass control logic circuit coupled with the Fibre Channel interface circuit and coupled with the back-end interface circuit wherein the bypass control logic circuit is adapted to map one of the multiple T-ALPAs to each of the plurality of 10 storage devices and wherein the bypass control logic circuit is further adapted to process loop port enable (LPE) and loop port bypass (LPB) Fibre Channel primitive sequences for each of the multiple T-ALPAs so as to bypass and enable individual ones of the plurality of storage devices regardless of the state of others of the plurality of storage devices.
A method operable in a Fibre Channel Arbitrated Loop (FC-AL) interface circuit of an FC-AL bridge device adapted to couple multiple non-FC-AL storage devices to an FC-AL communication medium, the method comprising:
- placing a partciular storage device coupled with the bridge device into a non-bypassed state in response to receipt by the bridge device of a loop port enable (LPE) primitive sequence received from the FC-AL communication medium identifying the particular storage device, wherein the particular storage device is entered into a non-bypassed state regardless of the bypassed/non-bypassed state of other storage devices coupled with the bridge device;
- and
- placing a partciular storage device coupled with the bridge device into a bypassed state in response to receipt by the bridge device of a loop port bypass (LPB) primitive sequence received from the FC-AL communication medium identifying the particular storage device, wherein the particular storage device is entered into a bypassed state regardless of the bypassed/non-bypassed state of other storage devices coupled with the bridge device.
A bridge device for coupling a plurality of serial attached SCSI (SAS) storage devices and/or serial advanced technology attachment (SATA) storage devices to a Fibre Channel arbitrated loop (FC-AL) communication medium, the bridge device comprising:
- a back-end interface circuit adapted to couple with a plurality of SAS/SATA storage devices;
- and
- a Fibre Channel interface circuit coupled with the back-end interface and adapted for coupling with the FC-AL communication medium, the Fibre Channel interface circuit including logic circuits adapted for implementing FC0, FC1, FC2, SCSI-FCP, and FC-AL layers of the Fibre Channel protocols, the FC-AL layer logic circuits including:
- a bypass control logic circuit adapted to map multiple target arbitrated loop physical addresses (T-ALPAs) to corresponding storage devices of the plurality of storage devices and wherein the bypass control logic circuit is further adapted to process loop port enable (LPE) and loop port bypass (LPB) Fibre Channel primitive sequences for each of the multiple T-ALPAs so as to bypass and enable individual ones of the plurality of storage devices regardless of the state of others of the plurality of storage devices.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.