Patent application number | Description | Published |
20080317069 | Speed negotiation for multi-speed communication devices - A method includes defining a pattern of time intervals, each time interval having a respective assigned communication speed, which alternates among multiple communication speeds supported by a first communication device. Synchronization requests are transmitted over a communication medium from the first communication device to a second communication device at the respective communication speed that is assigned in each interval in accordance with the pattern. While transmitting the synchronization requests, synchronization replies sent over the communication medium in response to the synchronization requests are received only at the respective communication speed that is assigned in each interval. Responsively to receiving the synchronization replies from the second communication device, one or more common communication speeds that are supported by both the first and the second communication devices are identified. Communication is established between the first and second communication devices over the communication medium using one of the common communication speeds. | 12-25-2008 |
20090037977 | APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR APPLYING NETWORK POLICY AT A NETWORK DEVICE - This document discusses, among other things, applying network policy at a network device. In an example embodiment fibre channel hard zoning information may be received that indicates whether a fibre channel frame is permitted to be communicated between two fibre channel ports. Some example embodiments include identifying a media access control addresses associated with the fibre channel ports. An example embodiment may include generating one or more access control entries based on the fibre channel identifications of the fibre channel ports and the zoning information. The access control entries may be distributes to an Ethernet port to be inserted into an existing access control list and used to enforce a zoning policy upon fibre channel over Ethernet frames. | 02-05-2009 |
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 |
20090252181 | DISCOVERY FOR FIBRE CHANNEL OVER ETHERNET DEVICES - Techniques are provided for performing discovery in a Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) network. An FCoE Node (ENode) discovers the FCoE Forwarders (FCFs) connected to its network segment by transmitting a solicitation message to the multicast MAC address “All-FCF-MACs”. All FCFs receive packets with this multicast MAC address including the solicitation message that announces the presence of the ENode. Each FCF replies with a unicast advertisement message that provides the ENode with a MAC address of the responding FCF. The ENode builds a list of the FCFs available on its network segment and may then establish a virtual link with one or more of the FCFs through a Fabric Login (FLOGI) exchange. | 10-08-2009 |
20090254677 | DISCOVERY FOR FIBRE CHANNEL OVER ETHERNET DEVICES - Techniques are provided for performing discovery in a Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) network. An FCF discovers other FCoE Forwarders (FCFs) connected to its network segment by transmitting a solicitation message to the multicast MAC address “All-FCF-MACs”. All FCFs receive packets with this multicast MAC address including the solicitation message that announces the presence of the FCF. Each FCF replies with a unicast advertisement message that provides the new FCF with a MAC address of the responding FCF. The FCF builds a list of the FCFs available on its network segment and may then establish a virtual link with one or more of the FCFs through an exchange link parameter (ELP) exchange. | 10-08-2009 |
20100100796 | ERROR DETECTING CODE FOR MULTI-CHARACTER, MULTI-LANE, MULTI-LEVEL PHYSICAL TRANSMISSION - A system (e.g., Fibre Channel Error Detecting Code (FC-EDC)) that maps the “standard” Hamming codes onto the bits of a 33-bit control block is provided. The system employs a “rotation” of the check positions in a two-dimensional parity-check matrix for the FC-EDC. The specification discloses a computer-implemented program to test further modifications and permutations of the “standard” distance-4 parity-check matrix to yield an FC-EDC with enhanced error-detecting properties, designed to detect the most likely errors in the known physical environment. By using a parity-check matrix with the “rotation” property, certain error-detecting properties of the parity-check matrix are ensured, and the computation time for searching for a matrix with enhanced error-detecting properties becomes much shorter. | 04-22-2010 |
Patent application number | Description | Published |
20090327518 | APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR DEFINING A STATIC FIBRE CHANNEL FABRIC - A storage area network and method for defining a static Fibre Channel Fabric that does not require a Principal Switch. The storage area network comprises one or more hosts, one or more storage devices, and a static Fabric connecting the one or more hosts and storage devices. Within the static Fabric, the Switches have their Domain_ID and Fabric_Name statically set. The method comprises accessing the Fabric, selecting a Switch in the Fabric, and statically configuring the Domain_ID and Fabric_Name for the selected Switch. The above sequence is repeated for each Switch in the static Fabric. In one embodiment, after being statically configured, the Switch is isolated from any dynamically set Switches in the Fabric. The Switch detects which of its Ports are connected to dynamically set Switches, and then isolates them, while maintaining operational the Ports connected to statically configured Switches. | 12-31-2009 |
20110219438 | METHODS AND APPARATUS FOR SECURITY OVER FIBRE CHANNEL - Methods and apparatus are provided for improving both node-based and message-based security in a fibre channel network. Entity to entity authentication and key exchange services can be included in existing initialization messages used for introducing fibre channel network entities into a fibre channel fabric, or with specific messages exchanged over an already initialized communication channel. Both per-message authentication and encryption mechanisms can be activated using the authentication and key exchange services. Messages passed between fibre channel network entities can be encrypted and authenticated using information provided during the authentication sequence. Security services such as per-message authentication, confidentiality, integrity protection, and anti-replay protection can be implemented. | 09-08-2011 |
20150101029 | METHODS AND APPARATUS FOR SECURITY OVER FIBRE CHANNEL - Methods and apparatus are provided for improving both node-based and message-based security in a fibre channel network. Entity to entity authentication and key exchange services can be included in existing initialization messages used for introducing fibre channel network entities into a fibre channel fabric, or with specific messages exchanged over an already initialized communication channel. Both per-message authentication and encryption mechanisms can be activated using the authentication and key exchange services. Messages passed between fibre channel network entities can be encrypted and authenticated using information provided during the authentication sequence. Security services such as per-message authentication, confidentiality, integrity protection, and anti-replay protection can be implemented. | 04-09-2015 |
Patent application number | Description | Published |
20110264779 | Using Values Represented as Internet Protocol (IP) Addresses to Access Resources in a Non-Internet Protocol Address Space - Non-Internet Protocol (IP) centric resources are accessed based on a value in the form of an IP address. This value (represented as the IP address) is converted to a non-IP address, which is to used access one or more non-IP address space resources. This value (represented as the IP address) typically includes an encoding of the non-IP address and/or an indirect reference (e.g., table index, pointer to a memory location) to the non-IP address. | 10-27-2011 |
20110280255 | Locally unique node port identifiers - In one embodiment, a method includes selecting a locally unique node port identifier at a Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) node in communication with at least one other FCoE node through an Ethernet network, discovering a virtual node port at the other FCoE node, and establishing a virtual link between the FCoE nodes for use in local communication over the Ethernet network. An apparatus and logic are also disclosed. | 11-17-2011 |
20130086266 | APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR APPLYING NETWORK POLICY AT A NETWORK DEVICE - This document discusses, among other things, applying network policy at a network device. In an example embodiment fibre channel hard zoning information may be received that indicates whether a fibre channel frame is permitted to be communicated between two fibre channel ports. Some example embodiments include identifying a media access control addresses associated with the fibre channel ports. An example embodiment may include generating one or more access control entries based on the fibre channel identifications of the fibre channel ports and the zoning information. The access control entries may be distributes to an Ethernet port to be inserted into an existing access control list and used to enforce a zoning policy upon fibre channel over Ethernet frames. | 04-04-2013 |
20130329743 | END-TO-END FIBRE CHANNEL OVER ETHERNET - In one embodiment, a Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) proxy point (FPP) that is connected to one or more end-point devices is coupled to one or more other FPPs, and to a FCoE control and management plane (F-CMP) server. The FPP provides data plane functionality. The F-CMP server provides control plane functionality. At least some control and management traffic received at the FPP is proxied between the F-CMP server and the one or more end point devices connected to the FPP. FCoE traffic received at the FPP from the one or more end point devices connected to the FPP is transmitted to the one or more other FPPs without the FCoE traffic traversing the F-CMP server. The transmitting is performed by data plane functionality of the FPP operating under directions from the control plane functionality of the F-CMP server. | 12-12-2013 |
20140259000 | Mitigating Issues Due to Firmware Upgrades in a Converged Network Environment - An upgrade process is provided to upgrade first and second switches in a converged network handling storage area network traffic and data network traffic, in which the first and second switches are coupled to a host, e.g., a Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) via distributed network links, e.g., Virtual PortChannel links or Distributed Resilient Interconnect (DRNI) links. The first switch is isolated from the host so that all distributed network links traffic associated with the host is transferred to the second switch. The firmware of the first switch is upgraded while all distributed network links traffic associated with the host is handled by the second switch. The firmware of the second switch is upgraded is a similar manner while all distributed network links traffic associated with the host is handled by the first switch. | 09-11-2014 |
20140307578 | FIBRE CHANNEL OVER ETHERNET SUPPORT IN A TRILL NETWORK ENVIRONMENT - An example method for Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) support in a Transparent Interconnection of Lots of Links (TRILL) network environment is provided and includes configuring at least two virtual storage area networks (SANs) in a TRILL network environment, which includes a plurality of leaf switches and spine switches, with each leaf switch being configured as a FCoE forwarder (FCF) enabled to forward frames according to FCoE protocol, and configuring at least an edge broadcast domain and a transport broadcast domain for each virtual SAN at each leaf switch. The edge broadcast domain includes end device links between the leaf switch and one or more end devices, and the transport broadcast domain includes spine links between the leaf switch and the spine switches. | 10-16-2014 |
20140317165 | DIRECT DATA PLACEMENT OVER USER DATAGRAM PROTOCOL IN A NETWORK ENVIRONMENT - An example method for direct data placement over User Datagram Protocol (UDP) in a network environment is provided and includes creating a queue pair (QP) for unreliable datagram transport in Infiniband according to an OpenFabrics Application Programming Interface (API) specification, mapping data generated by an application for transmission over the QP in a network environment to a UDP datagram, and passing the UDP datagram to a network interface for transmission. | 10-23-2014 |
20150085867 | Distributed Fibre Channel Forwarder - A distributed Fiber Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) Forwarder (FCF) and a distributed Fibre Channel Switch are described. The Distributed FCF is realized by instantiating respective connections between at least one Controlling FCF and a plurality of FCoE Data-Plane Forwarder (FDF) devices and between individual FDF devices. The Distributed FC Switch is realized by instantiating respective connections between at least one Controlling Switch and a plurality of FC Data-Plane Forwarder (FCDF) devices and between individual FCDF devices. | 03-26-2015 |
Patent application number | Description | Published |
20110045427 | ORTHODONTIC ALIGNER REMOVAL TOOL - An orthodontic aligner removal tool, kit, and method of using the same. An embodiment of the tool includes a shaft including a proximate end and a distal end. A C-shaped portion is positioned at the proximate end of the shaft. The C-shaped portion includes a top hook and a bottom hook. The top hook extends from the shaft and curves toward the bottom hook. The bottom hook extends from the shaft and curves toward the top hook. A handle portion is positioned at the distal end of the shaft. | 02-24-2011 |
20110147544 | COLLAPSIBLE GARBAGE BAG SUPPORT - A collapsible bag support to improve collection and disposal of garbage in bags. In one embodiment, the bag support includes a tube or sleeve having a first end and a second end. The tube is configured to receive refuse through the first end and deliver the refuse through the second end. The tube is flexible, such that the tube may be placed in a collapsed position and a fully extended position. The bag support further includes a spring coil carried by the tube. The spring coil biases the tube to the fully extended position. | 06-23-2011 |
20120189970 | ORTHODONTIC ALIGNER REMOVAL TOOL - An orthodontic aligner removal tool and kit. An embodiment of the tool includes a shaft including a proximate end and a distal end. A C-shaped portion is positioned at the proximate end of the shaft. The C-shaped portion includes a top hook and a bottom hook. The top hook extends from the shaft and curves toward the bottom hook. The bottom hook extends from the shaft and curves toward the top hook. A handle portion is positioned at the distal end of the shaft. | 07-26-2012 |
20120279976 | COLLAPSIBLE COVERING FOR A BUCKET - A collapsible covering for a bucket having a bucket opening and a bucket handle. The covering includes a lower portion configured to receive the bucket and an upper portion configured to fit over the bucket opening. The upper portion includes a releasable top flap providing access to the inside of the bucket. The lower portion and the upper portion are removable from the bucket and are made from a thermally insulating material. | 11-08-2012 |