MANAGEMENT OF A DISTRIBUTED FABRIC SYSTEM

• US 20130235763A1
• Filed: 04/24/2012
• Published: 09/12/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 03/07/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Anantharam, Sushma, Ghosh, Nirapada, Kamath, Dayavanti Gopal, Kamble, Keshav Govind, Leu, Dar-Ren, Mendon, Chandarani J., Pandey, Vijoy, Peethambaram, Nandakumar
• Granted Patent: US 9,054,989 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/255
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/413 with random access, e.g. carrier-sense multiple-access with collision detection [CSMA-CD]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/12 Discovery or management of network topologies
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/22 comprising specially adapted graphical user interfaces [GUI]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 49/256 Routing or path finding in ATM switching fabrics
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 49/356 for storage area networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 49/65 Re-configuration of fast packet switches
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 36/22 for handling the traffic

Abstract

A distributed fabric system has distributed line card (DLC) chassis and scaled-out fabric coupler (SFC) chassis. Each DLC includes a network processor and fabric ports. Each network processor includes a fabric interface in communication with the fabric ports of that DLC. Each SFC includes at least one fabric element and SFC fabric ports. A fabric communication link connects each SFC fabric port to one DLC fabric port. Each fabric communication link includes cell-carrying lanes. Each fabric element detects connectivity between each SFC fabric port of that SFC and one DLC fabric port over a fabric communication link. Each SFC reads a connectivity matrix from fabric element chips and sends connection information corresponding to the detected connectivity from that SFC to a central agent. A network element includes the central agent, which, when executed, constructs a topology of the distributed fabric system from the connection information sent from each SFC.

Claims

1. A method for managing a distributed fabric system in which a plurality of scaled-out fabric coupler (SFC) chassis is connected to a plurality of distributed line card (DLC) chassis over fabric communication links, the method comprising:

detecting, by a fabric element chip of each SFC chassis, connectivity between the fabric element chip of that SFC chassis and a fabric interface of a switching chip of one or more of the DLC chassis;

storing in memory, in response to the detected connectivity, connection information for each fabric communication link between the fabric element chip of that SFC and a fabric interface of a switching chip of the one or more of the DLC chassis;

accessing the memory to acquire the connection information for each fabric communication link; and

constructing a topology of the distributed fabric system from the acquired connection information for each communication link.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising determining from the connection information, received from every SFC chassis, traffic distribution throughout the distributed fabric system and any oversubscription relationship between the plurality of SFC chassis and the plurality of DLC chassis.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the connection information is specific to each lane of each fabric communication link.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising transmitting the topology of the distributed fabric system to a network management station and displaying the topology in graphical form at the network management station.

5. The method of claim 4, further comprising modifying the topology of the distributed fabric system through the graphical display of the topology.

6. The method of claim 4, further comprising:

detecting, by the fabric element chip of each SFC chassis, a status and bandwidth of each fabric communication link; and

displaying the status and bandwidth of each fabric communication link in the graphical display of the topology of the distributed fabric system.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising exchanging reachability messages between the plurality of SFC chassis and the plurality of DLC chassis to detect the connectivity between the fabric element chip of each SFC chassis and the fabric interface of a switching chip of one of the DLC chassis.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising updating the connection information corresponding to the detected connectivity at intervals of approximately six microseconds or less.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising updating the connection information corresponding to the detected connectivity in response to a change in the detected connectivity.