Patent ID: 8407384

Claim:
A storage system, comprising: a switching device including a first wide port, a plurality of first narrow ports and a plurality of second narrow ports, the first wide port accommodating a wide link composed of a plurality of physical links, each of the first narrow ports accommodating only one first physical link the first physical link having a first link rate, and each of the second narrow ports accommodating only one second physical link, the second physical link having a second link rate; a plurality of first link rate storage apparatuses, each of the first link rate storage apparatuses being connected to one of the first narrow ports via the first physical link connected thereto; a plurality of second link rate storage apparatuses, each of the second link rate storage apparatuses being connected to one of the second narrow ports via the second physical link connected thereto; and an interface for controlling the first link rate storage apparatuses and the second link rate storage apparatuses, the interface accommodating a second wide port, the second wide port accommodating the wide link; and a processing unit configured to partition the physical links of the wide link into two logical areas, one or more of the physical links in a first logical area of the two logical areas being used for data communication with the first link rate storage apparatuses, and one or more of the physical links in a second logical area of the two logical areas being used for data communication with the second link rate storage apparatuses, and to set up different multiplexing settings on the one or more of the physical links in the first logical area and the one or more of the physical links in the second logical area.