Howard E Green

US Patent:

7286544, Oct 23, 2007

Filed:

Jul 25, 2002

Appl. No.:

10/205214

Inventors:

Brian Forbes - Foster City CA, US
Lino Costantino - Oakland CA, US
Howard Green - Carlsbad CA, US

Assignee:

Brocade Communications Systems, Inc. - San Jose CA

International Classification:

H04L 12/28

US Classification:

370400, 370386

Abstract:

A multiport switch assembly comprises a plurality of discrete switch devices coupled together in a way that virtualizes the behavior of a multiport switch assembly. Each of said switch devices preferably has fewer ports than the number of ports made externally available by the multiport switch assembly. The multiport switch assembly preferably comprises a plurality of tiers of switch devices and a processor connected directly or indirectly to all or at least some of the switch devices. The processor executes code that permits the multiport switch assembly to appear, from the viewpoint of external logic (e. g. , management entities, end nodes, routers, etc. ), to operate as a single switch device. This alleviates the burden on the external logic, which otherwise would have to control each individual switch device to accomplish the desired switching behavior of the switch assembly.

US Patent:

7307996, Dec 11, 2007

Filed:

Jul 30, 2002

Appl. No.:

10/208430

Inventors:

Brian Forbes - Foster City CA, US
Lino Costantino - Oakland CA, US
Howard Green - Carlsbad CA, US

Assignee:

Brocade Communications Systems, Inc. - San Jose CA

International Classification:

H04L 12/28

US Classification:

370401, 370389, 370392

Abstract:

An Infiniband (IB) router with an internal subnet architecture is disclosed. It comprises multiple port interface circuits interconnected by an internal IB subnet. The multiple port interface circuits each connect to an external IB subnet and preferably determine new local route headers (LRH) for global IB packets (i. e. packets having a global route header (GRH)). The new LRHs for externally received packets include a destination local identifier (DLID) value that identifies another port interface circuit in the router, whereas the new LRHs for internally received packets include a DLID value that identifies an end node or router in the external subnet to which the port interface circuit is attached. The internal IB subnet transports IB packets between the port interface circuits, directing them according to the contents of the LRHs. The internal subnet may take the form of an IB switch or a network of IB switches.

US Patent:

7401157, Jul 15, 2008

Filed:

Jul 30, 2002

Appl. No.:

10/208429

Inventors:

Lino Costantino - Oakland CA, US
Howard Green - Carlsbad CA, US
Brian Forbes - Foster City CA, US

Assignee:

Brocade Communications Systems, Inc. - San Jose CA

International Classification:

G06F 15/173

US Classification:

709238, 709212

Abstract:

A system and method are disclosed for combining physically separate subnets of an Infiniband (IB) network into virtual subnets. In the virtual subnets, all of the end node in one subnet may be allowed to access all of the end nodes in another subnet, or the access may be limited to only a selected subset of another subnet. In addition to processing of globally-routed IB packets, the router also communicates (alone or in cooperation with another router) locally-routed IB packets traveling between a designated end nodes in different subnets. The routers may encapsulate the packets into raw datagrams for transport across intervening subnets. The described system and method may advantageously allow remote end nodes to act as a part of a given subnet, and may advantageously allow routers to provide both switch and routing functionality.