Patent ID: 9036656
Filing Date: 2015-05-19
Classification: H04L

Abstract:
1. A method comprising: at a first interface device, receiving a plurality of data packets from a source device for transmission over a Fibre-Channel (FC) network; prepending a reliability protocol header to data packets prior to their transmission to produce enhanced FC packets in exchange blocks, each exchange block comprising a plurality of enhanced FC packets, and wherein the reliability protocol header comprises reliability protocol attributes and FC attributes both of which are used to ensure in-order arrangement of the enhanced FC packets as the enhanced FC packets are received by a device in a FC network; at the first interface device, transmitting the enhanced FC packets with the prepended reliability protocol header across the FC network for delivery to a second interface device to cause the second interface device to evaluate the reliability protocol header and the FC attributes to arrange the packets in a proper order; sub-dividing each exchange block into exchange sub-blocks comprising a plurality of enhanced FC packets; and setting an originator exchange identifier in the reliability protocol header of the enhanced FC packets of each exchange sub-block such that a same originator exchange identifier is assigned to enhanced FC packets that are part of a same exchange sub-block but a different originator exchange identifier is assigned to enhanced FC packets of different exchange sub-blocks.