ATM/SONET network enhanced as a universal computer system interconnect
First Claim
1. An enhanced asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) switch for switching ATM cell traffic in an ATM network over transmission media, comprising:
- a switch fabric forming a switch core, the switch fabric transferring cells among a plurality of bidirectional ports in an ATM network;
at least one node interconnect, operatively coupled to the switch fabric, for providing low latency transfer between the bidirectional ports, the node interconnect comprising a segmentation and reassembly unit for providing ATM cell translation to and from available kernel buffers the segmentation and reassembly unit comprising a direct application input/output unit for transferring directly between a software application and the ATM network; and
at least one peripheral interconnect, operatively coupled to the switch fabric, for performing input/output operations with peripherals through the ATM network.
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Accused Products
Abstract
An enhanced ATM switch with CPU node interconnect functionality and peripheral interconnect functionality and network functionality. The ATM switch provides low latency transfer between computer nodes and performs input/output operations with peripherals through the ATM network. SCSI Fibre Channel protocol (FCP) commands are implemented according to ATM standards to provide communication with peripherals. A segmentation and reassembly (SAR) unit is provided for performing ATM segmentation and reassembly. The SAR includes functional units which allow direct connection of an application agent to the core of the switch once the cell characteristics are determined by the application agent and provides ATM cell translation to and from available kernel buffers. The transmission media in the ATM network comprises digital optical links. The enhanced ATM switch may also include a synchronous optical network (SONET) interface for providing SONET transmission over the digital optical links in the ATM network.
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Citations
43 Claims
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1. An enhanced asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) switch for switching ATM cell traffic in an ATM network over transmission media, comprising:
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a switch fabric forming a switch core, the switch fabric transferring cells among a plurality of bidirectional ports in an ATM network; at least one node interconnect, operatively coupled to the switch fabric, for providing low latency transfer between the bidirectional ports, the node interconnect comprising a segmentation and reassembly unit for providing ATM cell translation to and from available kernel buffers the segmentation and reassembly unit comprising a direct application input/output unit for transferring directly between a software application and the ATM network; and at least one peripheral interconnect, operatively coupled to the switch fabric, for performing input/output operations with peripherals through the ATM network. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27)
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28. A method for providing enhanced asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) switching of ATM cell traffic in an ATM network from the switch fabric over transmission media, comprising:
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providing low latency transfer between bidirectional ports and a switch fabric forming a switch core by performing ATM segmentation and reassembly to provide ATM cell translation to and from available kernel buffers, wherein the segmentation and reassembly comprises transferring directly between a software application and the ATM network; and performing input/output operations with peripherals attached to at least one of the bidirectional ports. - View Dependent Claims (29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43)
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Specification