Remote F_Ports
AssigneeBrocade Communications Systems, Inc.
InventorSathish Kumar Gnanasekaran
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Disclosed techniques allow for devices of a SAN to login to an F_port of a different switch than the switch to which the device is physically connected. These techniques allow moving some of the capability from an edge switch to another switch in the fabric, with the edge switch transporting incoming frames from the device to the other switch and thence across the SAN to the destination device, and similarly transporting outgoing frames from the more-capable switch to the edge switch for delivery to the device connected to the edge switch. In some embodiments, the edge switch may determine the other switch to which the device should login based on properties of the other switch.
Claims27
A network switch, comprising:
- a fabric port;
- an expansion port;
- a control subsystem, coupled to the fabric port and the expansion port;
- a host processor subsystem, coupled to the control subsystem, comprising:
- a processor;
- a storage medium, coupled to the processor;
- a software stored on the storage medium, wherein the software, when executed by the processor, causes the processor to perform actions comprising:
- configuring the control subsystem to send via the expansion port a fabric login request frame received via the fabric port to an expansion port of another network switch;
- and
- configuring the control subsystem to send via the fabric port a fabric address information frame received via the expansion port of the network switch from the another network switch responsive to the fabric login request frame.
A network switch, comprising:
- an expansion port;
- a logical fabric port;
- a control subsystem coupled to the expansion port;
- a host processor subsystem, coupled to the control subsystem, comprising:
- a processor;
- a storage medium;
- coupled to the processor;
- a software stored on the storage medium, wherein the software, when executed by the processor, causes the processor to perform actions comprising:
- configuring the control subsystem to associate the expansion port and the logical fabric port;
- configuring the control subsystem to pass a fabric login request frame received from another network switch via the expansion port to the logical fabric port;
- configuring the control subsystem to pass a fabric address information frame sent from the logical fabric port to the expansion port, responsive to the fabric login request frame;
- and
- configuring the control subsystem to send via the logical fabric port frames destined for a source of the fabric login request.
A method comprising:
- receiving by a first network switch a fabric login request from a device connected to a fabric port of the first network switch;
- logging the device into a logical fabric port of a second network switch;
- and
- transporting frames between the device and the logical fabric port of the second network switch through the first network switch.
A computer readable medium, on which is stored instructions which, when executed by a processor of a network switch having a fabric port and a expansion port, cause the network switch to perform actions comprising:
- configuring a control subsystem of the network switch to send via an expansion port of the network switch a fabric login request frame received via a fabric port to an expansion port of another network switch;
- configuring the control subsystem of the network switch to send via the fabric port a fabric address information frame received via the expansion port from the another network switch responsive to the fabric login request frame;
- and
- configuring the control subsystem of the network switch to transport frames between a device connected via the fabric port and a logical fabric port of the another network switch.
A computer readable medium, on which is stored instructions which, when executed by a processor of a network switch, cause the network switch to perform actions comprising:
- configuring a control subsystem of the network switch to associate an expansion port of the network switch with a logical fabric port of the network switch;
- configuring the control subsystem of the network switch to pass to the logical fabric port a fabric login request for a device connected to another network switch received from the another network switch via the expansion port of the network switch;
- logging the device into the logical fabric port;
- configuring the control subsystem to send a response to the fabric login request to the another network switch via the logical fabric port and the expansion port of the network switch;
- and
- configuring the control subsystem of the network switch to transport frames between the network switch and the device through the another network switch.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.