Patent ID: 9515922
Filing Date: 2016-12-06
CPC Classification: H04L

Claim Text:
1. An apparatus, comprising: a Controlling Fibre Channel Switch; and a plurality of Fibre Channel Data-Plane Forwarder (FCDF) devices in communication with the Controlling Fibre Channel Switch, wherein the plurality of FCDF devices are not able to operate without the Controlling Fibre Channel Switch, wherein the Controlling Fibre Channel Switch and the plurality of FCDF devices operate as a single distributed switch, are represented by a single domain identifier and communicate with one another without use of an Ethernet network, wherein the plurality of FCDF devices are in communication with the Controlling Fibre Channel Switch and with each other via respective A_Port to A_Port Fibre Channel links, and wherein the Controlling Fibre Channel Switch centralizes control plane functions, including route computations and access control computations, on behalf of the plurality of FCDFs, and communicates with the plurality of FCDF devices via an Adjacent Port (A_Port) protocol that includes a Distributed Fibre Channel Switch Membership Distribution (DFMD) message configured to establish that a given FCDF is part of the distributed switch.