Patent · US Expired

Method and apparatus for improving performance of a loop network

US7443788B2 · kind B2 · utility

3Cited by
7References
10Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateAug 6, 2002
Grant dateOct 28, 2008
Priority date
Expiry dateOct 1, 2025

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
  • CPC primaryH04L12/437
  • WIPO fieldDigital communication
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

A method and apparatus for improving performance of a loop network, in particular a Fiber Channel Arbitrated Loop. The loop network has two loops and a plurality of dual-ported devices each with one port on each loop. The method includes selectively bypassing redundant ports on the loops by a first command means in the form of a Fiber Channel Arbitrated Loop command to balance port accesses and to reduce the loop overhead by reducing the number of ports in each loop. In the event of a fault, bypassing the port of a device by a second command means in the form of a non Fiber Channel Arbitrated Loop command and enabling all the bypassed redundant ports with a single command to all ports using the first command means. The first command means does not enable the port bypassed by the second command means.

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