Aggregatable connectivity

• US 20040090928A1
• Filed: 11/13/2002
• Published: 05/13/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 11/13/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Original Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Inventors: Dunning, David S., Drottar, Ken, Schoenborn, Zale, Gardiner, Scott T., Martwick, Andrew
• Granted Patent: US 7,415,032 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/310
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/22 using redundant apparatus to increase reliability

Abstract

A first device and a second device, each coupled to one or more signal paths, attempting to transmit symbols over one or more of the signal paths, identifying one or more signal paths over each of which each device is able to transmit a symbol to the other device and over which each device is able to receive a symbol from the other device, and enrolling the identified signal paths into an aggregation of signal paths operable to provide for communication between the devices.

Claims

1. A method comprising a first device and a second device, each coupled to one or more signal paths:

attempting to transmit symbols over one or more of the signal paths;

identifying one or more signal paths over each of which the devices are able to exchange symbols; and

enrolling the identified signal paths into an aggregation of signal paths (aggregation) operable to provide for communication between the devices.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the devices enrolling the identified signal paths into an aggregation further comprises:

the first device proposing to the second device a first potential enrollment of signal paths into a first proposed aggregation, including the identified signal paths, such that no signal path in the first potential enrollment is already a member of a previously formed aggregation;

if the second device is able to enroll each signal path in the first potential enrollment into an aggregation, the second device and the first device agreeing to form the first proposed aggregation;

otherwise,

one of either the first device or the second device respectively proposing a second potential enrollment of signal paths into a second proposed aggregation that differs from the first proposed aggregation, to the other device.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein the second proposed aggregation has at least one fewer signal path than the first proposed aggregation.

4. The method of claim 3 wherein the signal paths in each aggregation are ordered and wherein the second proposed aggregation has an ordering of signal paths that differs from the ordering of signal paths of the first proposed aggregation.

5. The method of claim 2 wherein a device proposing a potential enrollment comprises the device sending to the other device a null symbol for each signal path not in the enrollment, and a non-null symbol that identifies the proposed aggregation for each signal path in the enrollment.

6. The method of claim 2 wherein each signal path comprises a packet-switched, serial, digital connection.

7. The method of claim 6 wherein each signal path comprises dual unidirectional differential connections including a first differentially driven signal pair for transmission and a second differentially driven pair for reception.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein:

each signal path is a lane;

each aggregation of signal paths is a link; and

each transmission of symbols comprises a transmission of a training sequences.

9. The method of claim 8 wherein each lane, link, symbol, training sequence, and device is a 3GIO-like lane, link, symbol, training sequence, and device respectively.

10. The method of claim 9 wherein the first device is an upstream device relative to the second device, and the second device is a downstream device relative to the first device.

18. A machine accessible medium having stored thereon data which when accessed by a machine causes the machine to perform the method of claim 1.

19. The machine accessible medium of claim 18 further comprising data which when accessed by the machine causes the machine to perform the method of claim 2.

20. The machine accessible medium of claim 19 further comprising data which when accessed by the machine cause the machine to perform the method of claim 3.

21. The machine accessible medium of claim 20 further comprising data which when accessed by the machine cause the machine to perform the method of claim 4.

22. The machine accessible medium of claim 19 further comprising data which when accessed by the machine cause the machine to perform the method of claim 5.

23. The machine accessible medium of claim 18 further comprising data which when accessed by the machine cause the machine to perform the method of claim 8.

24. The machine accessible medium of claim 23 further comprising data which when accessed by the machine cause the machine to perform the method of claim 9

11. An apparatus comprising:

a first device and a second device, each coupled to one or more signal paths, and operable to identify one or more of the signal paths over which the devices are able to exchange symbols; and

an aggregation of signal paths, including the identified signal paths, operable to provide for communication between the devices, and formed by the devices enrolling the identified signal paths into the aggregation.

12. The apparatus of claim 11 wherein each signal path comprises a packet-switched, serial, digital connection.

13. The apparatus of claim 12 wherein each signal path comprises dual unidirectional differential connections including a first differentially driven signal pair for transmission and a second differentially driven pair for reception.

14. The apparatus of claim 11 wherein each signal path is a lane, and each aggregation of signal paths is a link.

15. The apparatus of claim 13 wherein each lane, link, symbol, and device is a 3GIO-like lane, link, symbol, and device respectively.

16. A system comprising:

a first device and a second device, each coupled to one or more serial signal paths,

to exchange symbols representing proposed aggregations of the serial signal paths; and

to select one of the aggregations over which to communicate data between the first device and the second device; and

a processor connected to the selected aggregation.

17. The system of claim 16 wherein:

each serial connection is a 3GIO-like lane;

each aggregation of serial signal paths is a 3GIO-like link;

the first device and second device each is a 3GIO-like device; and

each exchange of symbols comprises an exchange of 3GIO-like training sequences.