Robert A Ferrer

US Patent:

7370224, May 6, 2008

Filed:

Feb 17, 2005

Appl. No.:

11/060199

Inventors:

Vijay Jaswa - Sunnyvale CA, US
Jeffrey Kidd - Los Altos CA, US
Robert Haragan - Los Altos CA, US
Robert Ferrer - Sunnyvale CA, US

Assignee:

Alcatel USA Sourcing, Inc - DE

International Classification:

G06F 11/00

US Classification:

714 4, 710316

Abstract:

A method and system is provided to enable redundancy in the communication between a plurality of peripheral devices and redundant hosts through redundant switches. The peripheral devices and the host are connected through a Peripheral Component Interconnect Express (PCI-Express) architecture in a data processing system. In an embodiment of the invention, the system includes a switch, a redundant switch, and switch-level exchanging means. The switch-level exchanging means enables the exchange of data packets between the peripheral devices and the host, through an available switch. The available switch is either the switch or the redundant switch. In another embodiment of the invention, the system also includes a redundant host and host-level exchanging means. The host-level exchanging means enables the exchange of data packets between an available host and the available switch. The available host is either the host or the redundant host.