| Patent application number | Description | Published |
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| 20090006746 | Online Restriping Technique for Distributed Network Based Virtualization - A technique is provided for implementing online restriping of a volume in a storage area network. A first instance of the volume is instantiated at a first port of the fibre channel fabric for enabling I/O operations to be performed at the volume. While restriping operations are being performed at the volume, the first port is able to concurrently perform I/O operations at the volume. | 01-01-2009 |
| 20090052326 | BACKWARD CONGESTION NOTIFICATION - In one embodiment, an apparatus comprises a network interface system having at least one input port configured for receiving frames and a logic system comprising at least one logic device. The logic system may be configured to perform the following functions: determining a source address and a destination address of a frame received at an ingress port; calculating a flow hash based at least upon the source address and the destination address; forming a congestion management (“CM”) tag that includes the flow hash; inserting the CM tag in the frame; and forwarding the frame to the destination address. | 02-26-2009 |
| 20090259816 | Techniques for Improving Mirroring Operations Implemented In Storage Area Networks and Network Based Virtualization - A technique is provided for implementing online mirroring of a volume in a storage area network. A first instance of the volume is instantiated at a first port of the fibre channel fabric for enabling I/O operations to be performed at the volume. One or more mirroring procedures may be performed at the volume. In at least one implementation, the first port is able to perform first I/O operations at the volume concurrently while the mirroring procedures are being performed at the first volume. In one implementation, the mirroring procedures may be implemented at a fabric switch of the storage area network. Additionally, in at least one implementation, multiple hosts may be provided with concurrent access to the volume during the mirroring operations without serializing the access to the volume. | 10-15-2009 |
| 20090259817 | Mirror Consistency Checking Techniques For Storage Area Networks And Network Based Virtualization - A technique is provided for facilitating information management in a storage area network. The storage area network may utilize a fibre channel fabric which includes a plurality of ports. The storage area network may also comprise a first volume which includes a first mirror copy and a second mirror copy. The storage area network may further comprise a mirror consistency data structure adapted to store mirror consistency information. A mirror consistency check procedure is performed to determine whether data of the first mirror copy is consistent with data of the second mirror copy. According to one implementation, the mirror consistency check procedure may be implemented using the consistency information stored at the mirror consistency data structure. | 10-15-2009 |
| 20110222402 | ETHERNET EXTENSION FOR THE DATA CENTER - The present invention provides methods and devices for implementing a Low Latency Ethernet (“LLE”) solution, also referred to herein as a Data Center Ethernet (“DCE”) solution, which simplifies the connectivity of data centers and provides a high bandwidth, low latency network for carrying Ethernet and storage traffic. Some aspects of the invention involve transforming FC frames into a format suitable for transport on an Ethernet. Some preferred implementations of the invention implement multiple virtual lanes (“VLs”) in a single physical connection of a data center or similar network. Some VLs are “drop” VLs, with Ethernet-like behavior, and others are “no-drop” lanes with FC-like behavior. Some preferred implementations of the invention provide guaranteed bandwidth based on credits and VL. Active buffer management allows for both high reliability and low latency while using small frame buffers. Preferably, the rules for active buffer management are different for drop and no drop VLs. | 09-15-2011 |
| 20110243136 | Forwarding multi-destination packets in a network with virtual port channels - In one embodiment, a method includes receiving a multi-destination packet at a switch in communication with a plurality of servers through a network device, identifying a port receiving the multi-destination packet at the switch or a forwarding topology for the multi-destination packet, selecting a bit value based on the identified port or forwarding topology, inserting the bit value into a field in a virtual network tag in the multi-destination packet, and forwarding the multi-destination packet with the virtual network tag to the network device. The network device is configured to forward the multi-destination packet to one or more of the servers based on the bit value in the multi-destination packet. An apparatus for forwarding multi-destination packets is also disclosed. | 10-06-2011 |
| Patent application number | Description | Published |
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| 20090019142 | Fibre channel intelligent target management system - In one embodiment, a network device receives a port login directed to a target from a first host. The network device determines whether at least one other host is currently logged in to the target. The network device may then send a port login to the target corresponding to whether at least one other host is currently logged in to the target. | 01-15-2009 |
| 20090162058 | FIBRE CHANNEL FABRIC AND SWITCHES WITH FLEXIBLE PREFIX ADDRESSING - A way to assign flexible prefixes to Switches in Fibre Channel Fabrics while using the currently defined FC_ID address space. This allows end devices in different Fibre Channel Fabrics to communicate with one another, without requiring modifications to existing end devices, nor to perform Network Address Translation between Fabrics. The existing address space for each Switch includes a dynamically configurable number of host bits sufficient to address all the end devices coupled to the Switch and the Switch itself. The remaining bits, called the Switch prefix, are used to identify the Switch in the switching Fabric. In an alternative embodiment, the Switch prefix bits may be further configured into a first sub-set of bits used to identify a specific Fabric (Fabric prefix) and a second sub-set of bits used to identify the Switch in the Fabric (Switch_ID). The flexible addressing scheme enables end devices in different Fabrics to communicate with one another without expanding the Fibre Channel address space or the need to perform Network Address Translations. | 06-25-2009 |
| 20090172816 | DETECTING ROOTKITS OVER A STORAGE AREA NETWORK - Embodiments of the invention improve the detection of malicious software applications, such as a rootkit, on hosts configured to access storage volumes over a storage area network (SAN). A rootkit detection program running on a switch may be configured to detect rootkits present on the storage volumes of the SAN. Because the switch may mount and access storage volumes independently from the (possibly comprised) hosts, the rootkit is not able to conceal itself from the rootkit detection program running on the switch. | 07-02-2009 |
| 20090287892 | EPOCH-BASED MUD LOGGING - In one embodiment, a MUD logger receives a notification from another MUD logger maintaining another MUD log for a volume, the notification indicating one or more modifications to be made to a MUD log maintained by the MUD logger receiving the notification, wherein the MUD log includes information for one or more epochs, wherein the information for each of the epochs indicates a set of one or more regions of the volume that have been modified during the corresponding epoch. The MUD logger updates the MUD log associated with the volume, wherein updating the MUD log is performed in response to the notification. | 11-19-2009 |
| 20100008375 | LABEL SWITCHING IN FIBRE CHANNEL NETWORKS - Methods and apparatus are provided for label switched routing in fibre channel networks. Techniques are provided for implementing label switching based on particular characteristics of fibre channel networks. By using label switching, mechanisms such as traffic engineering, security, and tunneling through networks that do not support fibre channel frames can be implemented. | 01-14-2010 |
| 20110267947 | Load Balancing Over DCE Multipath ECMP Links for HPC and FCoE - Methods and apparatus for generating different hash values in an effort to achieve better load balancing among various paths in a data center environment, such as Data Center Ethernet (DCE) with Layer 2 Multipathing (L2MP), supporting equal-cost multipath (ECMP) routing are provided. In this manner, the data center environment may attain better network utilization for high-performance computing (HPC), storage area network (SAN), and/or local area network (LAN) traffic. | 11-03-2011 |
| 20120106339 | Probing Specific Customer Flow in Layer-2 Multipath Networks - Techniques are provided to enable a switch in a layer-2 multipath network to determine connectivity of a path to a destination switch. At a source switch, user flow parameters are determined for user flow packets to be transported in the layer-2 multipath network to a destination switch. The sourced switch determines a number of hops from it to the destination switch based on the user flow parameters. Timestamping is activated for time-to-live expiry packets received at the source switch and for time-to-live expiry packets received at the destination switch. One or more probe packets having user flow parameters matching the user flow parameters of user flow packets are generated so that the probe packets use the same path taken by the user flow packets between the source switch and the destination switch. In addition, a time-to-live value corresponding to the number of hops from the source switch to the destination switch is included in a hop count field of the one or more probe packets. The time-to-live value distinguishes the one or more probe packets from user flow packets. The one or more probe packets are sent in the layer-2 multipath network from the source switch to the destination switch. Connectivity between the source switch and the destination switch is determined based on the one or more probe packets. | 05-03-2012 |
