Stream-oriented interconnect for networked computer storage
First Claim
1. An apparatus for interconnecting any of plurality of computing devices and a plurality of storage devices, comprising:
- a stream-oriented switch having a high throughput, but that requires non-negligible time for reconfiguration;
said stream-oriented switch further comprising;
a plurality of communication ports for connection to any of said computing devices and a plurality of ports for connection to said storage devices;
means for decoding requests from any of said computing devices and/or storage devices and for using information from said decoded requests to create circuits through said stream-oriented switch;
means for using said circuits to route traffic between any of said computing devices and said storage devices; and
means for buffering data and control information to improve overall throughput and reduce time spent on reconfiguration.
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Accused Products
Abstract
An apparatus and method for connecting a plurality of computing devices (14), e.g. web servers, database servers, etc., to a plurality of storage devices (16), such as disks, disk arrays, tapes, etc., by using a stream-oriented (circuit oriented) switch (12) that has high throughput, but that requires non-negligible time for reconfiguration is disclosed. An example of such stream-oriented switch is an optical switch (11). The preferred embodiment comprises a plurality of communication ports for connection to servers, and plurality of ports for connection to storage devices. The system decodes the requests from the computing devices and uses this information to create circuits, e.g. optical paths in embodiments where the stream-oriented switch (12) is an optical switch (11), through the stream-oriented switch (12). The system uses these circuits to route traffic between the computing devices (14) and the storage devices (16). Buffering of data and control in the device memory is used to improve overall throughput and reduce the time spent on reconfigurations. An alternative embodiment of the system uses two interconnects, in which all devices are connected to one or both interconnects. One of the interconnects is the stream-oriented switch described above. The second interconnect is a conventional packet switch which can switch traffic on a packet-by-packet basis, e.g. electronic packet switch. In contrast to the stream-oriented switch, the packet switch has much smaller overall throughput, but requires much less time for reconfiguration. The stream-oriented switch is used for switching relatively large data streams, e.g. reading a large file, while the packet switch is used for control an the rest of the data traffic.
56 Citations
38 Claims
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1. An apparatus for interconnecting any of plurality of computing devices and a plurality of storage devices, comprising:
a stream-oriented switch having a high throughput, but that requires non-negligible time for reconfiguration;
said stream-oriented switch further comprising;
a plurality of communication ports for connection to any of said computing devices and a plurality of ports for connection to said storage devices;
means for decoding requests from any of said computing devices and/or storage devices and for using information from said decoded requests to create circuits through said stream-oriented switch;
means for using said circuits to route traffic between any of said computing devices and said storage devices; and
means for buffering data and control information to improve overall throughput and reduce time spent on reconfiguration. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6)
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7. An apparatus for interconnecting any of plurality of computing devices and a plurality of storage devices, comprising:
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an optical switch;
a switch control unit for modifying said optical switch configuration, wherein once said optical switch is reconfigured, said switch control unit generates information indicating said reconfiguration, and wherein any of said computing devices and said storage devices commence using circuits that are available through said reconfiguration for communicating;
a scheduling and load balancing unit for determining a performance enhancing packet schedule and routing, for generating information used in determining switch configuration, for distributing a communication load among various available links between any of said computing devices and said storage devices, and for ordering packet flows; and
a system controller for communicating with said computing devices and said storage devices, for gathering requests, for monitoring status information, for distributing a packet schedule, for routing information, and for effecting stream-oriented switch configuration. - View Dependent Claims (8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19)
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20. A method for interconnecting any of plurality of computing devices and a plurality of storage devices, comprising the steps of:
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providing a stream-oriented switch having a high throughput, but that requires non-negligible time for reconfiguration;
providing a plurality of communication ports for connection to any of said computing devices and said storage devices;
decoding requests from any of said computing devices and said storage devices, and for using information from said decoded requests to create circuits through said stream-oriented switch;
using said circuits to route traffic between any of said computing devices and said storage devices; and
buffering data and control information to improve overall throughput and reduce time spent on reconfiguration. - View Dependent Claims (21, 22, 23, 24, 25)
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26. A method for interconnecting any of plurality of computing devices and a plurality of storage devices, comprising the steps of:
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providing an optical switch;
providing a switch control unit for modifying said optical switch configuration, wherein once said optical switch is reconfigured, said switch control unit generates information indicating said reconfiguration, and wherein said any of computing devices and said storage devices commence using circuits that are available through said reconfiguration for communicating;
providing a scheduling and load balancing unit for determining a performance enhancing packet schedule and routing, for generating information used in determining switch configuration, for distributing a communication load among various available links between any of said computing devices and said storage devices, and for ordering packet flows; and
providing a system controller for communicating with any of said computing devices and said storage devices, for gathering requests, for monitoring status information, for distributing a packet schedule, for routing information, and for effecting stream-oriented switch configuration. - View Dependent Claims (27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38)
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Specification