Patent ID: 7917682
Filing Date: 2011-03-29
Classification: G06F

Abstract:
1. A Serial-attached SCSI (SAS) over Enhanced Ethernet (SOE) controller, comprising: an application engine configured for converting between SAS protocols and Enhanced Ethernet protocols by receiving SAS frames from the SAS ports and encapsulating the received SAS frames into one or more Enhanced Ethernet frames to be transmitted by the Enhanced Ethernet ports to the Enhanced Ethernet network and receiving Enhanced Ethernet frames from the Enhanced Ethernet ports and de-encapsulating SAS frames encapsulated in the received Enhanced Ethernet frames, the de-encapsulated SAS frames to be communicated by the SAS ports to the SAS and SATA devices, the application engine further configured for automatically routing traffic to SAS devices over the one or more SAS ports or routing the traffic to SAS devices across the Enhanced Ethernet network over the one more Enhanced Ethernet ports in a manner that is transparent to a host application; a Peripheral Component Interconnect Express (PCIe) port coupled to the application engine for communicating with devices over a PCIe bus; one or more SAS ports coupled to the application engine for communicating with SAS and Serial Advanced Technology Attachment (SATA) devices; and one or more Enhanced Ethernet ports coupled to the application engine for transmitting and receiving Enhanced Ethernet frames over an Enhanced Ethernet network, wherein the SOE controller is an easy plug-in component in both a server end and a storage array end for integrating the SAS and Enhanced Ethernet networks.