Dual-band communication of management traffic in a blade server system

• US 8,306,652 B2
• Filed: 03/14/2008
• Issued: 11/06/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 03/14/2008
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Bandholz, Justin Potok, Kerr, Clifton Ehrich, Patel, Pravin, Wilkie, Bruce James
• Primary Examiner(s): Follansbee, John
• Assistant Examiner(s): Daftuar, Saket K
• Application Number:
  US12/048,624
• Publication Number:
  US 20090234936A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,698 Days
• Field of Search: 709/203, 709/208, 709/209, 709/210, 709/211, 709/223, 709/225, 709/226, 709/201, 709/220, 709/221, 709/222, 709/238, 709/245, 713/322, 713/323, 713/400, 713/600, 361/724, 361/728, 361/729, 361/730, 361/731, 361/732, 361/733, 361/734, 361/735
• US Class Current: 700/223
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 13/4072 Drivers or receivers G06F13/4086 takes precedence; for multistate logic circuits H03K19/0002
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/40032 Details regarding a bus interface enhancer
• CPC Class Codes: H05K 7/1492 having electrical distribution arrangements, e.g. power supply or data communications

Abstract

In one embodiment, a communication system for a multi-blade server system includes a multi-drop serial bus network interconnecting a management module with each of a plurality of servers in a multi-server chassis. A first transceiver subsystem is configured for communicating over the serial bus network between the management module and each server within a first frequency band. A second transceiver subsystem is configured for simultaneously communicating over the serial bus network between the management module and the servers within a second frequency band higher than the first frequency band. A first signal-filtering subsystem substantially filters out signals in the second frequency band from the first transceiver subsystem. A second signal-filtering subsystem substantially filters out the signals in the first frequency band from the second transceiver subsystem.

Claims

1. A communication system for a rack-mount server system, comprising:

a serial bus network interconnecting a management module with each of a plurality of blade servers in a multi-server chassis;

in each blade server, a first transceiver subsystem configured to independently communicate lower-bandwidth management traffic over the serial bus network between the management module and the blade server within a first frequency band and

a second transceiver subsystem configured to communicate higher bandwidth management traffic over the serial bus network between the management module and the blade server within a second frequency band simultaneously with the first transceiver subsystem communicating the lower-bandwidth management traffic over the serial bus network between the management module and the blade server within the first frequency band; and

a signal-filtering subsystem configured to selectively filter the management traffic to electronically separate the higher-bandwidth management traffic from the lower-bandwidth management traffic.

2. The communication system of claim 1, wherein the first transceiver subsystem comprises a lower-frequency transceiver included with each blade server and a lower-frequency transceiver included with the management module configured to communicate with the lower-frequency transceiver included with each blade server.

3. The communication system of claim 2, wherein the second transceiver subsystem comprises a higher-frequency transceiver included with the at least one dual-band blade server and a higher-frequency transceiver included with the management module configured to communicate with the higher-frequency transceiver included with the at least one dual-band blade server.

4. The communication system of claim 1, wherein the signal-filtering subsystem comprises a low-pass filter included with each blade server to filter out signals in the higher-frequency band sent by the management module to the at least one dual-band blade servers and a low-pass filter included with the management module to filter out signals in the higher-frequency band sent by the at least one dual-band blade server to the management module.

5. The communication system of claim 1, wherein the signal-filtering subsystem comprises a high-pass filter included with each-the at least one dual-band blade server to filter out signals in the lower-frequency band sent by the management module to the respective blade servers and a high-pass filter included with the management module to filter out signals in the lower-frequency band sent by the respective blade server to the management module.

6. The communication system of claim 1, wherein the first transceiver subsystem communicates using the RS-485 protocol.

7. The communication system of claim 6, wherein the lower-frequency band on which the first transceiver subsystem communicates is less than or equal to about 1125 kHz.

8. The communication system of claim 1, wherein the transmission rate at which the first transceiver subsystem communicates is no greater than about 250 kbps.

9. The communication system of claim 8, wherein the second transceiver subsystem communicates using a multipoint, radio protocol.

10. The communication system of claim 8, wherein the higher frequency band on which the second transceiver subsystem communicates is about 2.4 GHz.

11. The communication system of claim 8, wherein the transmission rate at which the second transceiver subsystem communicates is about 22 Mbs.

12. The communication system of claim 1, further comprising:

a baseboard management controller provided on each blade server, wherein the signals in the first frequency band are routed to the baseboard management controller.

13. The communication system of claim 12, wherein the signals in the second frequency band received by the blade servers are routed to the baseboard management controller.

14. The communication system of claim 1, wherein the management traffic communicated by the first transceiver subsystem comprises a first set of management signals representative of a temperature, a cooling fan speed, a power mode, an operating system (OS) status, or a combination thereof.

15. The communication system of claim 1, wherein the management traffic communicated by the first transceiver subsystem comprises power-cycling instructions or power reset instructions generated by the management module.

16. The communication system of claim 1, wherein the management traffic communicated by the second transceiver subsystem comprises a second set of management signals including video signals or flash update instructions.