Patent ID: 8625635

Claim:
A method for execution by one or more computing devices of a dispersed storage network (DSN), the method comprises: generating a set of dispersed storage network (DSN) frames regarding a DSN operation, wherein generating the set of DSN frames includes: generating a common protocol header for each of the set of DSN frames, wherein the common protocol header includes: a protocol class field to indicate a data storage protocol; a protocol class version field to indicate a version of the data storage protocol; an operation code (opcode) field to indicate the DSN operation; a request/response field to indicate whether a corresponding one of the DSN frames is a request frame or a response frame; a request number field to uniquely identify the DSN operation; and a payload length field; generating a unique payload section for each DSN frame of the set of DSN frames to produce a set of unique payload sections, wherein the unique payload section includes target specific information regarding the DSN operation; and sending the set of DSN frames to one or more DSN devices, wherein one of the set of DSN frames includes the common protocol header and one of the set of unique payload sections.