Patent ID: 7412500

Claim:
A method for obtaining a quorum vote by a first node using a quorum cable, comprising: determining that a network connection between the first node and a second node is inactive, wherein the network connection is associated with a local area network; determining whether the quorum cable is reserved by the second node using a remote reservation input (RRI) on a first end; if the quorum cable is not reserved by the second node: asserting a local reservation input (LRI) on the first end by the first node; monitoring a local reservation output (LRO) on the first end by the first node to determine whether the LRO on the first end is asserted in response to asserting the LRI on the first end; and obtaining the quorum vote by the first node, if the LRO on the first end is asserted, wherein the quorum vote is obtained without direct communication between the first node and the second node, wherein the quorum cable comprises the first end directly connected to the first node and the second end directly connected to a second node.