Simulated fibre channel trunking system

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10855595-B2
Application number	US-201816144037-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 27, 2018
Priority date	Sep 27, 2018
Publication date	Dec 1, 2020
Grant date	Dec 1, 2020

Abstract

A FC networking system includes a first FC networking device that is coupled to a FC storage system. A second FC networking device is coupled to a server device and includes a first FC PHY converter that is coupled to the first FC networking device via a first and a second FC link. The second FC networking device also includes an Ethernet switch processor that is coupled to the first FC PHY converter via a plurality of Ethernet links. The Ethernet links include a first Ethernet link that is mapped to the second FC link and a second Ethernet link that is mapped to the third FC link. The second FC networking device groups the first Ethernet link with the second Ethernet link to provide an aggregated interface, and load balances FCoE traffic between the first Ethernet link and the second Ethernet link.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A Fibre Channel (FC) networking system, comprising:
a server device;
a Fibre Channel (FC) storage system;
a first FC networking device that is coupled to the FC storage system via a first FC link; and
a second FC networking device that is coupled to the server device and that includes:
a first FC PHY converter that is coupled to the first FC networking device via a second FC link and a third FC link; and
a first Ethernet switch processor that is coupled to:
the server device; and
the first FC PHY converter via a plurality of Ethernet links that include:
a first Ethernet link that is mapped to the second FC link and that is provided between the first Ethernet switch processor and the first FC PHY converter; and
a second Ethernet link that is mapped to the third FC link and that is provided between the first Ethernet switch processor and the first FC PHY converter,

wherein the second FC networking device is configured to:
group the first Ethernet link with the second Ethernet link to provide an aggregated interface that is associated with an aggregated interface identifier that is used to advertise the aggregated interface as a single interface; and
load balance Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) traffic, which is provided by the first Ethernet switch processor to the aggregated interface based on the aggregated interface identifier, between the first Ethernet link and the second Ethernet link, wherein the load balancing of the FCoE traffic, the mapping of the first Ethernet link to the second FC link, and the mapping of the second Ethernet link to the third FC link causes a first portion of the FCoE traffic that is load balanced on the first Ethernet link and converted by the first FC PHY to first FC traffic to be provided on the second FC link, and a second portion of the FCoE traffic that is load balanced on the second Ethernet link and converted by the first FC PHY to second FC traffic to be provided on the third FC link.

2. The FC networking system of claim 1 , wherein the second FC networking device further includes:
a second FC PHY converter that is coupled to:
the server device via a fourth FC link; and
the first Ethernet switch processor via a third Ethernet link.

3. The FC networking system of claim 2 , wherein the first FC PHY converter and the second FC PHY converter are configured to convert FC traffic to FCoE traffic, and convert FCoE traffic to FC traffic.

4. The FC networking system of claim 1 , wherein the second FC networking device is further configured to:
apply a first FC PHY configuration to a first FC PHY that is included in the first FC PHY converter and that is coupled to the first Ethernet link; and
apply the first FC PHY configuration to a second FC PHY that is included in the first FC PHY converter and that is coupled to the second Ethernet link.

5. The FC networking system of claim 1 , wherein the load balancing is performed by hashing the FCoE traffic based on a source device identifier.

6. The FC networking system of claim 1 , wherein the first FC networking device includes:
a first networking device FC PHY converter that is coupled to the second FC link and the third FC link; and
a first FC networking device Ethernet switch processor that is coupled to:
the FC storage system; and
the first FC networking device FC PHY converter via a plurality of Ethernet links that include:
a first FC networking device first Ethernet link that is mapped to the second FC link and that is provided between the first FC networking device Ethernet switch processor and the first FC networking device FC PHY converter; and
a first FC networking device second Ethernet link that is mapped to the third FC link and that is provided between the first FC networking device Ethernet switch processor and the first FC networking device FC PHY converter,

wherein the first FC networking device is configured to:
group the first FC networking device first Ethernet link and the first FC networking device second Ethernet link to provide an aggregated interface; and
load balance Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) traffic that is provided by the first FC networking device Ethernet switch processor between the first FC networking device first Ethernet link and the first FC networking device second Ethernet link.

7. The FC networking system of claim 1 , wherein the load balancing is performed by hashing the FCoE traffic based on a destination device identifier.

8. An Information Handling system (IHS), comprising:
a plurality of Fibre Channel (FC) ports;
a first FC PHY converter that is coupled to the plurality of FC ports;
a processing system that includes an Ethernet switch processor that is coupled to the first FC PHY converter via a plurality of Ethernet links that include:
a first Ethernet link that is mapped to a first FC port of the plurality of FC ports and that is provided between the Ethernet switch processor and the first FC PHY converter; and
a second Ethernet link that is mapped to a second FC port of the plurality of FC ports and that is provided between the Ethernet switch processor and the first FC PHY converter; and

a memory system that is coupled to the processing system and that includes instructions that, when executed by the processing system, cause the processing system to provide a grouping engine that is configured to:
group the first Ethernet link with the second Ethernet link to provide an aggregated interface that is associated with an aggregated interface identifier that is used to advertise the aggregated interface as a single interface; and
load balance Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) traffic, which is provided by the Ethernet switch processor to the aggregated interface based on the aggregated interface identifier, between the first Ethernet link and the second Ethernet link, wherein the load balancing of the FCoE traffic, the mapping of the first Ethernet link to the first FC port, and the mapping of the second Ethernet link to the second FC port causes a first portion of the FCoE traffic that is load balanced on the first Ethernet link and converted by the first FC PHY to first FC traffic to be provided on the first FC port, and a second portion of the FCoE traffic that is load balanced on the second Ethernet link and converted by the first FC PHY to first FC traffic to be provided on the second FC port.

9. The IHS of claim 8 , further comprising:
a second FC PHY converter that is coupled to the Ethernet switch processor via a third Ethernet link.

10. The IHS of claim 9 , wherein the first FC PHY converter and the second FC PHY converter are configured to convert FC traffic to FCoE traffic, and convert FCoE traffic to FC traffic.

11. The IHS of claim 8 , wherein the grouping engine is further configured to:
apply a first FC PHY configuration to a first FC PHY that is included in the first FC PHY converter and that is coupled to the first Ethernet link; and
apply the first FC PHY configuration to a second FC PHY that is included in the first FC PHY converter and that is coupled to the second Ethernet link.

12. The IHS of claim 8 , wherein the load balancing is performed by hashing the FCoE traffic based on a source device identifier include in the FCoE traffic.

13. The IHS of claim 8 , wherein the load balancing is performed by hashing the FCoE traffic based on a destination device identifier include in the FCoE traffic.

14. The IHS of claim 8 , wherein the FCoE traffic that is provided by the Ethernet switch processor on the first Ethernet link is provided as FC traffic through the first FC port and the FCoE traffic that is provided by

Assignees

• Dell Products Lp

Inventors

• Jayakumar Avinash
• Subbiah Ramesh Kumar
• Varghese Vibin
• Sridhar Praveen

Classifications

• H04L67/1001

  for accessing one among a plurality of replicated servers · CPC title

• H04L47/125 Primary

  by balancing the load, e.g. traffic engineering · CPC title

• H04L45/245 Primary

  Link aggregation, e.g. trunking · CPC title

• Y02D30/50

  in wire-line communication networks, e.g. low power modes or reduced link rate · CPC title

• H04L49/60

  Software-defined switches · CPC title