Patent ID: 8446817
Filing Date: 2013-05-21
Classification: H04L

Abstract:
1. A method of Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) communication, comprising: providing two or more FCoE forwarders (FCFs) for each of two or more fabrics including a first virtual fabric; assigning, for each of the two or more FCFs of each respective fabric, media access control (MAC) addresses using a respective single MAC address per fabric, wherein each of the two or more FCFs of each fabric have the respective single MAC address for the fabric, wherein the respective single MAC address assigned for each fabric comprises a virtual FC-MAP-MAC (vFC-MAP-MAC) address for a virtual FCoE forwarder (vFCF) of each respective fabric; receiving an FCoE frame addressed with the single MAC address for the first virtual fabric; in the absence of a communication failure with any of the two or more FCFs for the first virtual fabric, forwarding the FCoE frame to a first FCF of the two or more FCFs for the first virtual fabric; and after the occurrence of a communication failure with any of the two or more FCFs for the first virtual fabric, forwarding the FCoE frame to a second FCF of the two or more FCFs for the first virtual fabric.