Fibre channel over ethernet
First Claim
1. A network, comprising:
- a first plurality of switches configured for operation according to the Fibre Channel (“
FC”
) protocol; and
a second plurality of switches configured for operation according to the Ethernet protocol but not configured for operation according to the FC protocol, wherein each of the first plurality of switches and each of the second plurality of switches is configured to simultaneously carry traffic according to multiple protocols on multiple virtual lanes of the same physical link, each one of the multiple protocols being assigned to a different set of one or more of the multiple virtual lanes, wherein each different set of one or more of the multiple virtual lanes carries traffic according to the one of the multiple protocols that has been assigned;
wherein the multiple protocols include a first protocol with drop behavior and a second protocol with no-drop behavior, and wherein a first one of the multiple virtual lanes of the physical link is assigned as a drop lane such that the first one of the multiple virtual lanes carries traffic in the first protocol with drop behavior, and a second one of the multiple virtual lanes of the physical link is assigned as a no-drop lane such that the second one of the multiple virtual lanes carries traffic in the second protocol with no-drop behavior.
1 Assignment
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A Data Center Ethernet (“DCE”) network and related methods and device are provided. A DCE network simplifies the connectivity of data centers and provides a high bandwidth, low latency network for carrying Ethernet, storage and other traffic. A Fiber Channel (“FC”) frame, including FC addressing information, is encapsulated in an Ethernet frame for transmission on a Data Center Ethernet (“DCE”) network. The Ethernet address fields may indicate that the frame includes an FC frame, e.g., by the use of a predetermined Organization Unique Identifier (“OUI”) code in the D_MAC field, but also include Ethernet addressing information. Accordingly, the encapsulated frames can be forwarded properly by switches in the DCE network whether or not these switches are configured for operation according to the FC protocol. Accordingly, only a subset of Ethernet switches in the DCE network needs to be FC-enabled. Only switches so configured will require an FC Domain_ID.
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Citations
36 Claims
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1. A network, comprising:
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a first plurality of switches configured for operation according to the Fibre Channel (“
FC”
) protocol; anda second plurality of switches configured for operation according to the Ethernet protocol but not configured for operation according to the FC protocol, wherein each of the first plurality of switches and each of the second plurality of switches is configured to simultaneously carry traffic according to multiple protocols on multiple virtual lanes of the same physical link, each one of the multiple protocols being assigned to a different set of one or more of the multiple virtual lanes, wherein each different set of one or more of the multiple virtual lanes carries traffic according to the one of the multiple protocols that has been assigned; wherein the multiple protocols include a first protocol with drop behavior and a second protocol with no-drop behavior, and wherein a first one of the multiple virtual lanes of the physical link is assigned as a drop lane such that the first one of the multiple virtual lanes carries traffic in the first protocol with drop behavior, and a second one of the multiple virtual lanes of the physical link is assigned as a no-drop lane such that the second one of the multiple virtual lanes carries traffic in the second protocol with no-drop behavior. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 26, 27, 28, 29)
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16. A gateway comprising:
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means for receiving a first Fibre Channel (“
FC”
) frame from a storage network;means for encapsulating the first FC frame as a first Ethernet frame; and means for transmitting the first Ethernet frame on a virtual lane of a Data Center Ethernet (DCE) network, the DCE network comprising switches configured to simultaneously carry traffic according to multiple protocols on multiple virtual lanes of the same physical link, each one of the multiple protocols being assigned to a different set of one or more of the multiple virtual lanes, wherein each different set of one or more of the multiple virtual lanes carries traffic according to the one of the multiple protocols that has been assigned; wherein the multiple protocols include a first protocol with drop behavior and a second protocol with no-drop behavior, and wherein a first one of the multiple virtual lanes of the physical link is assigned as a drop lane such that the first one of the multiple virtual lanes carries traffic in the first protocol with drop behavior, and a second one of the multiple virtual lanes of the physical link is assigned as a no-drop lane such that the second one of the multiple virtual lanes carries traffic in the second protocol with no-drop behavior. - View Dependent Claims (17, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34)
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18. A gateway comprising:
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a plurality of Fibre Channel (“
FC”
) ports configured for communication with a FC network; anda plurality of Ethernet ports configured for communication with a Data Center Ethernet (DCE) network, the DCE network comprising switches configured to simultaneously carry traffic according to multiple protocols on multiple virtual lanes of the same physical link, each one of the multiple protocols being assigned to a different set of one or more of the multiple virtual lanes, wherein each different set of one or more of the multiple virtual lanes carries traffic according to the one of the multiple protocols that has been assigned; wherein the multiple protocols include a first protocol with drop behavior and a second protocol with no-drop behavior, and wherein a first one of the multiple virtual lanes of the physical link is assigned as a drop lane such that the first one of the multiple virtual lanes carries traffic in the first protocol with drop behavior, and a second one of the multiple virtual lanes of the physical link is assigned as a no-drop lane such that the second one of the multiple virtual lanes carries traffic in the second protocol with no-drop behavior. - View Dependent Claims (19, 35, 36)
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20. A network, comprising:
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a first plurality of switches configured for operation according to the Fibre Channel (“
FC”
) protocol; anda second plurality of switches configured to simultaneously carry traffic according to multiple protocols on multiple virtual lanes of the same physical link, the second plurality of switches comprising; a first portion of switches that are Fibre Channel over Ethernet (“
FCoE”
) switches configured to process FCoE frames, which are FC frames encapsulated in Ethernet frames; anda second portion of switches that are not FCoE switches, each one of the multiple protocols being assigned to a different set of one or more of the multiple virtual lanes, wherein each different set of one or more of the multiple virtual lanes carries traffic according to only the one of the multiple protocols that has been assigned; wherein the multiple protocols include a first protocol with drop behavior and a second protocol with no-drop behavior, and wherein a first one of the multiple virtual lanes of the physical link is assigned as a drop lane such that the first one of the multiple virtual lanes carries traffic in the first protocol with drop behavior, and a second one of the multiple virtual lanes of the physical link is assigned as a no-drop lane such that the second one of the multiple virtual lanes carries traffic in the second protocol with no-drop behavior. - View Dependent Claims (21, 22, 23, 24, 25)
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Specification