Patent ID: 7072298

Claim:
A method for adapting to different data rates between a source for a Fibre Channel frame and a cell-based switch fabric requiring cells having a data payload and a cell header, the cell header containing a packet length field that indicates the length of the Fibre Channel frame in cells, the method comprising: a) constructing a first data cell from the Fibre Channel frame, the first data cell containing a full data payload and a packet length value in the packet length field, the packet length value being set large enough to represent a maximum sized Fibre Channel frame; b) after constructing the first data cell, establishing a path through the cell-based switch fabric and associating with the path a duration determined by the packet length value; c) constructing a second data cell from the Fibre Channel frame, the second data cell containing a partially filled data payload and a valid data value in the packet length field, the valid data value indicating the number of valid data bytes in the partially filled data payload; d) transmitting the first and second data cells over the path; and e) reconstructing the Fibre Channel frame at least in part from the transmitted first and second data cells, the reconstructed data frame containing data from the entire full data payload of the first data cell and the valid data bytes of the second data cell data payload.