Systems and methods for deriving storage area commands

• US 7,649,880 B2
• Filed: 12/16/2005
• Issued: 01/19/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 11/12/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: ServStor Technologies, LLC (IP Investments Group LLC)
• Original Assignee: Rateze Remote Mgmt. L.L.C. (Intellectual Ventures LLC)
• Inventors: Witchey, Nicholas, Ludwig, Thomas, Adams, Mark
• Primary Examiner(s): CHO, HONG SOL
• Application Number:
  US11/305,679
• Publication Number:
  US 20060101130A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,495 Days
• Field of Search: 370/389, 370/394, 370/400, 370/401, 370/465, 370/466, 370/469
• US Class Current: 370/389
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/00 Network arrangements, protocols or services for addressing or naming
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/35 involving non-standard use of addresses for implementing network functionalities, e.g. coding subscription information within the address or functional addressing, i.e. assigning an address to a function
• 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]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/56 Provisioning of proxy services store-and-forward switching systems in data switching networks H04L12/54
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/565 Conversion or adaptation of application format or content adding application control or application functional data H04L67/561
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/63 Routing a service request depending on the request content or context
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/08 Protocols for interworking; Protocol conversion

Abstract

Systems and methods for quickly resolving storage area commands from packet addresses are presented. Clients exchange packets comprising addresses and payloads with physical storage areas that have controllers using a stateless protocol. Modules use the addresses in addition to payloads to derive commands that are understandable by the controller. Furthermore, the neither the module nor the controller require use of a file system to interact with the physical storage area. Modules can derive the storage area commands through resolving a context associated with physical storage area. In some embodiments, modules split addresses into portions that can be used as indices into context lookup tables. In other embodiments, modules can employ variants to router address lookup algorithms to quickly resolve storage area commands.

Claims

1. A storage system comprising:

a module configured

to receive, in a manner of a stateless protocol, a packet from a network, the packet having a payload and an Internet protocol (IP) address that corresponds to a physical storage area of a storage device,

to construct a portion based at least in part on the IP address,

to identify, based at least in part on the portion, a storage address context having information related to the physical storage area, and

to derive a storage area command based at least in part on the storage address context; and

a controller coupled to the module and configured

to receive the storage area command from the module, and

to access the physical storage area based at least in part on the storage area command, wherein the module is to derive the storage area command and the controller is to access the physical storage area without use of a file system.

2. The storage system of claim 1, wherein the packet is a first packet and the IP address is a first IP address and the module is to receive a second packet having a second IP address that corresponds to the physical storage area, the first IP address and the second IP address being different addresses.

3. The storage system of claim 2, wherein the storage address context is a first context and the storage area command is a first storage area command and the module is further configured:

to identify a second context based at least in part on the second IP address; and

to derive a second storage area command based at least in part on the second context, the second storage area command being different from the first storage area command.

4. The storage system of claim 1, wherein the packet is a first packet and the IP address is a first address and the module is to receive a second packet having a second address, wherein the first and second addresses comprise different lengths.

5. The storage system of claim 1, wherein the module is to construct the portion by encoding a bit pattern of a segment of the IP address.

6. The storage system of claim 1, wherein the module is to identify the storage address context from a lookup table using the portion as an index.

7. The storage system of claim 6, wherein the lookup table is a recursive flow classification (RFT) preprocessed lookup table (PLT) and the module is to run a value of the portion through a rule in the RFT PLT to provide a result and to identify the storage address context based at least in part on the result.

8. The storage system of claim 1, wherein the IP address comprises an externally controlled address that is at least one of an IPv4 and IPv6 address.

9. The storage system of claim 1, wherein the portion is a first segment of the IP address and the module is further configured to construct a second segment of the IP address and to identify the storage address context by indexing the first segment to a least significant word lookup table to identify a most significant word lookup table and to index the second segment to the most significant word lookup table.

10. The storage system of claim 1, wherein the portion comprises a split segment of the IP address, multiple segments of the IP address, or overlapped segments of the IP address.

11. A method comprising:

receiving a packet from a network, the packet having a payload and an Internet protocol (IP) address that corresponds to a physical storage area of a storage device;

constructing, by a module of the storage device, a portion based at least in part on the IP address;

identifying, by the module based at least in part on the portion, a storage address context having information related to the physical storage area,

deriving a storage area command based at least in part on the storage address context; and

accessing, by a controller of the storage device, the physical storage area based at least in part on the storage area command, wherein said deriving and accessing is done without using a file system.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein said constructing the portion comprises encoding a bit pattern of a segment of the IP address.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein said identifying the context comprises

running a value of the portion through a rule in a recursive flow classification (RFT) preprocessed lookup table (PLT) to provide a result;

and

identifying the storage address context based at least in part on the result.

14. The method of claim 11, wherein said identifying the context comprises:

employing a lookup table that is indexed by the portion.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the portion has a length of X bits, the address has a length of Y bits, X is less than Y, and X and Y form a pair (X, Y) comprising one of the following pairs (4, 32), (8, 32), (16, 32), (24, 32), (4,128), (8, 128), (16, 128), (24, 128), (32,128), and (64,128).

16. The method of claim 11, wherein said identifying the storage address context is based at least in part on multi-bit tries, binary trees, a recursive flow classification, and/or a practice algorithm to retrieve information coded in alphanumeric (PATRICIA).

17. The method of claim 11, wherein the packet is a first packet, the IP address is a first IP address, the storage area command is a first storage area command, and the method further comprises:

receiving a second packet having a second IP address that corresponds to the physical storage area, the second IP address being different from the first IP address;

deriving a second storage area command based at least in part on the second address, the second storage area command being different from the first storage area command.

18. The method of claim 11, wherein said receiving the packet occurs in a manner of a stateless protocol.

19. A computer readable memory having stored thereon, instructions that, if executed on a processing unit, cause a storage device to:

process a packet received from a network, the packet having a payload and an Internet protocol (IP) address that corresponds to a physical storage area of the storage device;

construct a portion based at least in part on the IP address,

identify, based at least in part on the portion, a storage address context having information related to the physical storage area,

derive a storage area command based at least in part on the storage address context; and

access the physical storage area based at least in part on the storage area command, wherein the storage device is to derive the storage area command and access the physical storage area without use of a file system.

20. The computer readable memory of claim 19, wherein the packet is a first packet and the IP address is a first IP address and the instructions, if executed on the processing unit, further cause the storage device to

process a second packet having a second IP address that corresponds to the physical storage area, the first IP address and the second IP address being different addresses.

21. The computer readable memory of claim 20, wherein the storage address context is a first context and the storage area command is a first storage area command and the instructions, if executed on the processing unit, further cause the storage device to:

identify a second context based at least in part on the second IP address; and

derive a second storage area command based at least in part on the second context, the second storage area command being different from the first storage area command.

22. The computer readable memory of claim 20, wherein the instructions, if executed on the processing unit, further cause the storage device to:

construct the portion by encoding a bit pattern of a segment of the IP address.

23. The computer readable memory of claim 20, wherein the instructions, if executed on the processing unit, further cause the storage device to:

run a value of the portion through a rule in a recursive flow classification (RFT) preprocessed lookup table (PLT) to provide a result; and

identify the storage address context based at least in part on the result.