FIBRE CHANNEL SWITCH THAT ENABLES END DEVICES IN DIFFERENT FABRICS TO COMMUNICATE WITH ONE ANOTHER WHILE RETAINING THEIR UNIQUE FIBRE CHANNEL DOMAIN_IDs

• US 20110090816A1
• Filed: 12/21/2010
• Published: 04/21/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 06/26/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Inventors: RAIMONDO, Bruno, BERGAMASCO, Davide, BANERJEE, Subrata, GAI, Silvano, DUTT, Dinesh G., JAIN, Ankur, EDSALL, Thomas, BHARADWAJ, Rajeev
• Granted Patent: US 8,625,460 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/254
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2212/00 Encapsulation of packets
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/04 Interdomain routing, e.g. hierarchical routing
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/74 Address processing for routing
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 49/357 Fibre channel switches
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1097 for distributed storage of data in networks, e.g. transport arrangements for network file system [NFS], storage area networks [SAN] or network attached storage [NAS]

Abstract

A Fibre Channel Switch which enables end devices in different Fabrics to communicate with one another while retaining their unique Fibre Channel Domain_IDs. The Switch is coupled to a first fabric having a first set of end devices and a second fabric having a second set of end devices. The Switch is configured to enable communication by the first set of end devices associated with the first fabric with the second set of end devices associated with the second set of end devices using the unique Domain_IDs of each of the first set and the second set of end devices. In one embodiment of the invention, the first and second fabrics are first and second Virtual Storage Array Networks (VSANs) respectively. In an alternative embodiment, the first fabric and the second fabric are separate physical fabrics.

Claims

1. A switch comprising:

a first interface connected to a first plurality of devices including a first device in a first virtual storage area network (VSAN);

a second interface connected to a second plurality of devices including a second device in a second VSAN;

a processor configured to determine that the first device and the second device reside in the same inter-VSAN.