Patent ID: 6041348
Filing Date: 2000-03-21
Classification: G06F

Abstract:
In a computer network comprising a plurality of interconnected nodes, each node having ports for receiving and transmitting information to ports of other nodes, each port in each node having a port module associated therewith, each port module in a node having a priority in the node, each node in the network having a unique identifier which is transmitted by each node during reset of the computer network, a process for identifying which ports in one of the plurality of interconnected nodes can be disabled during reset of the network, said process comprising the steps of:(a) for each port module in said one of the nodes, commencing with the port module having the highest priority in said one of the nodes;(i) determining, between a predetermined unique identifier and a unique identifier being received by the port from other nodes, which unique identifier satisfies a first set of predetermined conditions;(ii) transmitting, from the port to other nodes, the unique identifier which has been determined by the associated port module satisfies the first set of predetermined conditions for the port;(iii) sending to the next highest priority port module in the node the unique identifier which has been determined by the port module to satisfy the first set of predetermined conditions;(iv) determining, between the unique identifier sent from the higher priority port module of said one of the nodes and a unique identifier being received by the port associated with the next highest priority port module of said one of the nodes, which unique identifier satisfies the first set of predetermined conditions; and(v) repeating steps (ii) to (iv) for each port module in said one of the nodes in the order of priority until each port of said one of the nodes is transmitting an identical unique identifier number that satisfies the first set of predetermined conditions, said identical unique identifier being transmitted by each port corresponding to a root node of the plurality of nodes;(b) for each port that is receiving the identical unique identifier from the root node, disabling one of the ports receiving the identical unique identifier from the root node.