Patent · US Expired

Available bandwidth detector for SAN switch ports

US7339896B2 · kind B2 · utility

5Cited by
14References
21Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateSep 10, 2002
Grant dateMar 4, 2008
Priority date
Expiry dateJan 31, 2025

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
  • CPC primaryH04L69/329
  • WIPO fieldDigital communication
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

A system and method for measuring data transmission activity through a port of a switch device interconnecting nodes of a storage area network, the port transmitting data as words of predetermined length, one data word indicating idle port activity. The method includes steps of: counting a number of transmitted words received from the port in a first counter device; and, for each word counted, comparing that word with a predetermined word indicating no (idle) port transmission activity. In response to the comparing, a number of matches are counted in a second counter device. In this manner, a ratio of a number of counted matches with a total amount of words counted indicates available bandwidth for transmitting additional data over that link. Preferably, this value is communicated to a processor device for controlling bandwidth over the link.

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.