Patent ID: 7948920
Filing Date: 2011-05-24
Classification: H04L

Abstract:
1. A method comprising: establishing a first link between a first trunking node port in a node with a first trunking fabric port in a Fiber Channel (FC) fabric by sending a login request from the node to the FC fabric and receiving a message comprising information indicating that the login request was accepted; creating a trunking port channel with the first link as a first member using a port channel protocol, the trunking port channel supporting a plurality of virtual fabrics; enabling the first link to carry tagged frames using a port tagging protocol, the tagged frames being tagged with a particular virtual fabric identifier so as to distinguish traffic among different virtual fabrics; exchanging a list of identifiers for allowed virtual fabrics between the first trunking node port and the first trunking fabric port; logging in a logical interface for each of the allowed virtual fabrics to the FC fabric over the trunking port channel; establishing a second link between a second trunking node port in the node with a second trunking fabric port in the FC fabric by sending a login request from the node to the FC fabric and receiving a message comprising information indicating that the login request was accepted; enabling the second link to carry tagged frames using the port tagging protocol; and adding the second link to the trunking port channel as a second member aggregated with the first member.