Patent ID: 7167929

Claim:
A storage-shelf-router-interface tunnel comprising: an external processing entity interconnected with a storage shelf by a first communications medium using commands of a first protocol; mass-storage devices within the storage shelf that may be accessed by a mass-storage-device protocol through a second communications medium; a storage-shelf router that provides a virtual interface to mass-storage devices within the storage shelf to the external processing entity, translating first-protocol commands received from the first communications medium to mass-storage-device protocol commands and directing the translated mass-storage-device protocol commands to the mass-storage devices through the second communications medium, and that also provides for direct access by the external processing entity to the mass-storage devices by unpackaging mass-storage-device-protocol commands from a particular type of first-protocol command frame received through the first communications medium and directing the unpackaged mass-storage-device-protocol commands through the second communications medium, without translation, to the mass-storage devices.