Switch assisted frame aliasing for storage virtualization

(54) SWITCH ASSISTED FRAME ALIASING FOR STORAGE VIRTUALIZATION

(75) Inventors: Lani William Brewer, Anaheim, CA (US); John Gifford Logan, Newport Beach, CA (US)

(73) Assignee: Broadcom Corporation, Irvine, CA (US)

( * ) Notice: Subject to any disclaimer, the term of this patent is extended or adjusted under 35 U.S.C. 154(b) by 822 days.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

(21) Appl.No.: 11/505,816

(22) Filed: Aug. 18, 2006

(65) Prior Publication Data

US 2006/0274755 Al Dec. 7, 2006

Related U.S. Application Data

(63) Continuation of application No. 11/037,197, filed on Jan. 19, 2005, now Pat. No. 7,116,666, which is a continuation of application No. 09/881,949, filed on Jun. 15, 2001, now Pat. No. 6,876,656.

(51) Int. CI.

G06F11/00 (2006.01)

(52) U.S. CI 370/389; 370/392; 707/782

(58) Field of Classification Search 370/389,

370/392,356; 709/203,213,219; 707/782 See application file for complete search history.

(56) References Cited

U.S. PATENT DOCUMENTS

4,677,608 A 6/1987 Forsberg

An apparatus and process for relabelling and redirecting at least some of the read transaction data frames and the write transaction write data and transfer ready frames in a network so as to bypass a storage manager and pass directly between the client and a storage device via a switch. This eliminates the storage manager as a bottleneck. Some embodiments redirect every read and write transaction, and others redirect only large transactions, or only ones not stored in cache or when latency gets too high. Redirection is accomplished by transmission from the storage manager to a switch redirection commands that contain old and new address data. When a frame to be redirected comes in, its address is compared to the old address data. If there is a match, the new address data is substituted and the frame is passed to a conventional routing process to be routed so as to bypass the storage manager.

18 Claims, 20 Drawing Sheets