Patent ID: 7539891
Filing Date: 2009-05-26
Classification: H04L

Abstract:
1. A Fibre Channel Arbitrated Loop (FC-AL) communication network, comprising: a first FC-AL controller having at least four Fibre Channel (FC) loops as outputs; a first FC-AL mass storage drive having second and third FC-AL controllers, wherein each of the second and third FC-AL controllers have at least four Fibre Channel (FC) loops as outputs; and wherein a first output of the first FC-AL controller is coupled to a first input of the second FC-AL controller, and a second output of the first FC-AL controller is coupled to a first input of the third FC-AL controller; and a second FC-AL mass storage drive having fourth and fifth FC-AL controllers, wherein each of the fourth and fifth FC-AL controllers have at least four Fibre Channel (FC) loops as outputs; and wherein a first output of the second FC-AL controller is coupled to a first input of the fourth FC-AL controller, and a first output of the third FC-AL controller is coupled to a first input of the fifth FC-AL controller.