Bus Scaling Device

• US 20090245245A1
• Filed: 01/14/2009
• Published: 10/01/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 03/25/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: III Holdings 1, LLC
• Original Assignee: Aprius Incorporated
• Inventors: Malwankar, Kiron, Talayco, Daniel
• Granted Patent: US 8,175,085 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/389
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 13/4059 where the synchronisation uses buffers, e.g. for speed matching between buses

Abstract

A scaling device or striper improves the lane efficiency of switch fabric. The striper controls or adjusts transfer modes and payload sizes of a large variety of devices operating with different protocols. The striper interfaces between network devices and the switch fabric, and the resulting switching system is configurable by a single controller. A source device sends a data packet to its corresponding striper for transmission across the switch fabric to a destination device. The corresponding striper parses the packet to determine its type and payload length, and divides the packet into numerous smaller segments when the payload length exceeds a predetermined length. The segments may be stored in the striper to adapt to the available bandwidth of the switch. The segments are sent across the switch fabric and reassembled at a destination striper. The packet as reassembled is forwarded to the destination device.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

a plurality of network switches each comprising a plurality of channels;

a plurality of scaling devices, wherein each scaling device of the plurality of scaling devices is coupled between at least one network switch of the plurality of network switches and a network device of a plurality of network devices; and

a controller coupled to the plurality of scaling devices.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein a first scaling device divides an original packet received from a first network device into a plurality of packet pieces if a payload length of a received packet is greater than a predetermined number of bytes.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the first scaling device transmits the packet pieces to a second scaling device using the plurality of channels.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein the second scaling device reassembles the packet pieces to form the original packet at the second scaling device.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein each scaling device comprises a packet segmenter and a packet reassembler.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein the packet segmenter divides a received packet from the network device into a plurality of packet pieces if a payload length of a received packet is greater than a predetermined number of bytes.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein the predetermined number of bytes is programmable.

8. The system of claim 5, wherein the packet segmenter is bypassed if a payload length of a received packet is equal to or less than a predetermined number of bytes.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the predetermined number of bytes is programmable.

10. The system of claim 5, wherein each scaling device comprises a plurality of egress first-in-first-out (FIFO) buffers.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein each scaling device comprises a plurality of ingress FIFO buffers.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the plurality of ingress FIFO buffers and egress FIFO buffers are configurable to adapt to control the traffic flow of different packet types.

13. The system of claim 1, wherein each scaling device comprises at least one PCIe high-speed lane coupled to the at least one network switch.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the at least one PCIe high-speed lane comprises a configurable transfer data rate.

15. The system of claim 1, wherein the network device is a PCIe device.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein each scaling device comprises a PCIe port coupled to the PCIe device.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the PCIe port is configurable to include a plurality of lanes.

18. The system of claim 15, wherein the network device is a PCIe endpoint device having at least one input/output (I/O) component, the at least one I/O component including at least one of a GbE I/O adapter, a 10 Gb Ethernet adapter, a Fibre Channel host bus adapter, and an InfiniBand host channel adapter.

19. The system of claim 1, wherein a number of the plurality of channels is at least equal to the number of the plurality of network devices.

20. The system of claim 1, wherein the bandwidth of the plurality of channels is at least equal the bandwidth of the plurality of network devices for a non-blocking packet transfer.

21. A device comprising:

a port and a plurality of channels, the port coupled to a network device, the plurality of channels coupled to a plurality of network switches;

a packet segmenter coupled to the port;

a plurality of egress first-in-first-out (FIFO) buffers coupled to the packet segmenter and the channels;

a packet reassembler coupled to the port;

a plurality of ingress FIFO buffers coupled to the channels and the packet reassembler.

22. The device of claim 21, wherein the packet segmenter divides a received packet from the network device into a plurality of packet pieces if a payload length of a received packet is greater than a predetermined number of bytes.

23. The device of claim 22, wherein the predetermined number of bytes is programmable.

24. The device of claim 21, comprising a bypass line coupled between the channels and the port, wherein the packet segmenter is bypassed via the bypass line if a payload length of a received packet is equal to or less than a predetermined number of bytes.

25. The device of claim 24, wherein the predetermined number of bytes is programmable.

26. The device of claim 21, wherein the plurality of ingress FIFO buffers and egress FIFO buffers are configurable to adapt to control the traffic flow of different packet types.

27. The device of claim 21, wherein the channels comprise a configurable transfer data rate.

28. The device of claim 21, wherein the network device is a PCIe device.

29. The device of claim 28, wherein the port comprises a PCIe port coupled to the PCIe device.

30. The device of claim 29, wherein the PCIe port is configurable to include a plurality of lanes.

31. The device of claim 28, wherein the network device is a PCIe endpoint device having at least one input/output (I/O) component, the at least one I/O component including at least one of a GbE I/O adapter, a 10 Gb Ethernet adapter, a Fibre Channel host bus adapter, and an InfiniBand host channel adapter.

32. A method comprising:

receiving a packet at a source striper, the packet transmitted from a source device corresponding to the source striper;

determining a payload length of the packet received at the source striper;

splitting the packet into a plurality of segments when the payload length is greater than a predetermined value;

transmitting the plurality of segments to a destination stripper via a plurality of channels, wherein each channel is coupled to a switch fabric;

regenerating the packet at a destination striper by reassembling the plurality of segments; and

forwarding the packet to a destination device coupled to the destination striper.

33. The method of claim 32, comprising controlling the transmitting of the plurality of segments to a destination stripper according to a type of the packet.

34. The method of claim 32, comprising forwarding the packet to the switch fabric when the payload length is one of equal to and less than the predetermined value.

35. The method of claim 34, comprising controlling the transmitting of the packet to the switch fabric according to a type of the packet.

36. The method of claim 34, comprising forwarding the packet to the destination device.

37. The method of claim 32, comprising storing the plurality of segments at the source striper if the switch fabric is unable to receive the plurality of segments.

38. The method of claim 32, comprising forwarding the plurality of segments from the source striper if the switch fabric is able to receive the plurality of segments.

39. The method of claim 32, wherein forwarding of the packet to the destination device begins prior to completion of the regenerating of the packet at the destination striper by reassembling the plurality of segments.

40. A method comprising:

coupling a striper between a network device and a switch fabric;

receiving a packet at the striper, the packet transmitted from the network device;

determining a payload length of the packet received at the striper;

splitting the packet into a plurality of segments when the payload length is greater than a predetermined value; and

transmitting the plurality of segments to a destination stripper via the switch fabric.

41. The method of claim 40, comprising storing the plurality of segments at the striper if the switch fabric is unable to receive the plurality of segments.

42. The method of claim 40, comprising:

regenerating the packet at a destination striper by reassembling the plurality of segments; and

forwarding the packet to a destination device coupled to the destination striper.

43. The method of claim 40, comprising forwarding the packet to the switch fabric when the payload length is one of equal to and less than the predetermined value.

44. A method comprising:

coupling a striper between a network device and a switch fabric;

receiving a plurality of packet segments at the striper, the plurality of packet segments transmitted via a switch fabric from a source device;

regenerating a packet at the striper by reassembling the plurality of packet segments, wherein a source striper corresponding to the source device split the packet to form the plurality of packet segments in response to a payload length of the packet exceeding a predetermined value; and

forwarding the packet to the network device.

45. The method of claim 44, comprising:

receiving a second packet at the striper, the second packet transmitted from the network device;

determining a payload length of the second packet;

splitting the second packet into a second plurality of packet segments when the payload length of the second packet is greater than a second predetermined value; and

transmitting the second plurality of packet segments via the switch fabric.

46. The method of claim 45, comprising forwarding the second packet to the switch fabric when the payload length is one of equal to and less than the second predetermined value.

47. The method of claim 45, comprising storing the second plurality of packet segments at the striper if the switch fabric is unable to receive the plurality of packet segments.