Apparatus and method for enabling intelligent Fibre-Channel connectivity over transport
First Claim
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1. A method comprising:
- at a transport network interface apparatus associated with a first Fiber-Channel port that is to communicate over a transport network with a second Fiber-Channel port, monitoring link establishment frames originated by and communicated between said first Fibre-Channel port and said second Fibre-Channel port; and
at the transport network interface apparatus, based on said link establishment frames, determining said link status between said first Fibre-Channel port and said second Fibre-Channel port and port types among a plurality of possible port types of said first and second Fibre Channel ports using a state machine, wherein flow through states of the state machine depends on the link status and port types of the first Fibre-Channel port and the second Fibre-Channel port according to the link establishment frames exchanged between the first Fibre-Channel port and the second Fibre-Channel port.
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Abstract
The link status of a Fibre-Channel link interconnecting two Fibre-Channel ports may be determined by a third entity distinct from the two Fibre-Channel ports. The third entity may be a transport interface used to connect one of the Fibre-Channel ports to a transport network that carries the link. The transport interface may also learn the Fibre-Channel port types of the two ports.
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Citations
20 Claims
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1. A method comprising:
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at a transport network interface apparatus associated with a first Fiber-Channel port that is to communicate over a transport network with a second Fiber-Channel port, monitoring link establishment frames originated by and communicated between said first Fibre-Channel port and said second Fibre-Channel port; and at the transport network interface apparatus, based on said link establishment frames, determining said link status between said first Fibre-Channel port and said second Fibre-Channel port and port types among a plurality of possible port types of said first and second Fibre Channel ports using a state machine, wherein flow through states of the state machine depends on the link status and port types of the first Fibre-Channel port and the second Fibre-Channel port according to the link establishment frames exchanged between the first Fibre-Channel port and the second Fibre-Channel port. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8)
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9. An apparatus comprising:
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an ingress block configured to connect to a local Fibre-Channel port and to encapsulate frames to be transmitted over a transport network to a remote Fibre-Channel port; an egress block configured to connect to the local Fibre-Channel port and to deencapsulate frames from packets received over the transport network; and a processor that is configured to monitor link establishment frames originated by and communicated between said local Fibre-Channel port and said remote Fibre-Channel port and, based on said link establishment frames, to determine a link status between said local Fibre-Channel port and said remote Fibre-Channel port and port types of said local Fibre-Channel port said remote Fibre-Channel port, wherein the processor is configured to determine link status and port types using a state machine, wherein flow through states of the state machine depends on the link status and the port types among a plurality of possible port types of the local Fibre-Channel port and the remote Fibre-Channel port according to the link establishment frames exchanged between the local Fibre-Channel port and the remote Fibre-Channel port. - View Dependent Claims (10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16)
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17. A tangible computer readable memory storing code that, when executed by a processor, causes the processor to:
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monitor link establishment frames originated by and communicated between a first Fibre-Channel port and a second Fibre-Channel port that communicate with each other over a transport network; and based on said link establishment frames, determine link status between said first Fibre-Channel port and said second Fibre-Channel port and port types of said first Fibre-Channel port and said second Fibre-Channel port using a state machine, wherein flow through states of the state machine depends on the link status and the port types among a plurality of possible port types of the first Fibre-Channel port and the second Fibre-Channel port according to the link establishment frames exchanged between the first Fibre-Channel port and the second Fibre-Channel port. - View Dependent Claims (18, 19, 20)
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Specification