Brocade Patent Applications

CONFIGURABLE GEOGRAPHIC PREFIXES FOR GLOBAL SERVER LOAD BALANCING

Granted: December 20, 2012
Application Number: 20120324089
In a load balancing system, user-configurable geographic prefixes are provided. IP address prefix allocations provided by the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) and associated geographic locations are stored in a first, static database in a load balancing switch, along with other possible default geographic location settings. A second, non-static database stores user-configured geographic settings. In particular, the second database stores Internet Protocol (IP) address prefixes…

NODE DEVICE COOPERATING WITH SWITCH WHICH IMPLEMENTS ZONES IN A FIBRE CHANNEL SYSTEM

Granted: December 20, 2012
Application Number: 20120320799
In a system comprising a first fabric and a plurality of devices coupled to the fabric by Fibre Channel connections, the devices are logically grouped to form configurations and zones. A configuration includes at least one zone, and each zone includes at least one device as a member of the zone. Communications between the devices is restricted according to the configuration currently in effect. For example, one device may be permitted to communicate with another device only if they are…

TECHNIQUES FOR EFFICIENTLY UPDATING ROUTING INFORMATION

Granted: November 22, 2012
Application Number: 20120294166
Techniques for efficiently updating routing information in a network device such as a router. According to an embodiment of the present invention, the routing information is updated upon creation or deletion of an overlay tunnel without the network device having to regenerate a Shortest Path Tree (SPT) by performing full Shortest Path First (SPF) processing.

CONTROL PACKET BICASTING BETWEEN STACKABLE DEVICES

Granted: November 8, 2012
Application Number: 20120281695
Techniques that enable a network device such as a switch to bicast control packets to an active controller and a standby controller in a stackable system. Techniques are provided for encapsulating control packets with one or more proprietary headers to bicast encapsulated control packets to an active controller and a standby controller in a stackable system.

LAYER-3 SUPPORT IN TRILL NETWORKS

Granted: November 8, 2012
Application Number: 20120281700
One embodiment of the present invention provides a switch. The switch includes an IP header processor and a forwarding mechanism. The IP header processor identifies a destination IP address in a packet encapsulated with an inner Ethernet header, a TRILL header, and an outer Ethernet header. The forwarding mechanism determines an output port and constructs a new header for the packet based on the destination IP address. The switch also includes a packet processor which determines whether…

Double Stack Compact Flash Card Connector

Granted: November 8, 2012
Application Number: 20120282803
A first housing element is attached to an upper surface of a printed circuit board (PCB), and a second housing element is attached to a lower surface of the PCB. The first housing element receives a first electronic module, and includes a first signal wire that connects the first electronic module to a first trace on the PCB. The second housing element receives a second electronic module, which is vertically aligned with the first electronic module, and includes a second signal wire that…

Interrupt Moderation

Granted: November 8, 2012
Application Number: 20120284444
A technique for interrupt moderation allows coalescing interrupts from a device into groups to be processed as a batch by a host processor. Receive and send completions may be processed differently. When the host is interrupted for receive completions, it may check for send completions, reducing the need for interrupts related to send completions. Timers and a counter allow coalescing interrupts into a single interrupt that can be used to signal the host to process multiple completions.…

Systems and Methods for Notification of Quality of Service Violation

Granted: November 1, 2012
Application Number: 20120278514
A quality of service (QoS) notification module can provide detection and notification of violation of allocated QoS to a transmission queue. The QoS notification module can be located on a network adapter and send notifications to a host computer coupled to the network adapter. QoS notifications can indicate that one or more host transmission queues are being underserved, i.e., the bandwidth guaranteed to the one or more host queues is not being met despite the queues not being empty.…

VIRTUAL MACHINE AND APPLICATION MOVEMENT OVER A WIDE AREA NETWORK

Granted: November 1, 2012
Application Number: 20120278804
Long distance cloud migration (LDCM) to overcome the limitations faced by the cloud migration techniques over long distance, high speed WAN infrastructures. LDCM overcomes the negative effects of existing TCP/IP mechanisms on the efficient use of available bandwidth. LDCM also acts as an acceleration engine to optimize various hypervisor, storage and security applications.

SIDE-EXHAUST COOLING SYSTEM WITH EXTENSIBLE DUCT FOR RACK MOUNTED EQUIPMENT

Granted: October 25, 2012
Application Number: 20120270492
A cooling device for rack mount equipment comprises an extensible side duct, open on its inner and rear-facing sides which redirects warm exhaust air exiting vents in the side of a chassis towards the rear of an enclosure holding the chassis. An apparatus incorporating the cooling device may be installed in a rack with the extensible side duct in a retracted position. The extensible side duct may extend under the influence of air pressure, forming a plenum in fluid communication with the…

Virtual Port World Wide Names

Granted: August 30, 2012
Application Number: 20120218990
A network switch allows defining a virtual port worldwide name (VPWWN) and associating the VPWWN with an F_port of the network switch, for use by a host bus adaptor (HBA) connecting to the network switch. Both a default and a user VPWWN may be defined, with the user VPWWN typically taking precedence over the default VPWWN. A database of VPWWN associations may be used to ensure uniqueness of the user VPWWN. Where the HBA allows dynamic assignment of WWNs, the VPWWN may be pushed to the…

Scalable Distributed Web-Based Authentication

Granted: August 30, 2012
Application Number: 20120221849
Web-based authentication includes receiving a packet in a network switch having at least one associative store configured to forward packet traffic to a first one or more processors of the switch that are dedicated to cryptographic processing if a destination port of the packet indicates a secure transport protocol, and to a second one or more processors of the switch that are not dedicated to cryptographic processing if the destination port does not indicate a secure transport protocol.…

Scalable Distributed Web-Based Authentication

Granted: August 23, 2012
Application Number: 20120216254
Web-based authentication includes receiving a packet in a network switch having at least one associative store configured to forward packet traffic to a first one or more processors of the switch that are dedicated to cryptographic processing if a destination port of the packet indicates a secure transport protocol, and to a second one or more processors of the switch that are not dedicated to cryptographic processing if the destination port does not indicate a secure transport protocol.…

System, Method And Apparatus For Providing Multiple Access Modes In A Data Communications Network

Granted: August 23, 2012
Application Number: 20120216256
A system, method and apparatus for providing multiple access modes in a data communications network includes a network access device having a plurality of input ports, a plurality of output ports, and a switching fabric for routing data received on the plurality of input ports to at least one of the plurality of output ports. Control logic within the network access device is adapted to determine whether a user device coupled to one of the plurality of input ports supports a user…

Port Decommissioning

Granted: August 16, 2012
Application Number: 20120207154
A management application can automatically coordinate the decommissioning of ports in a switch, ensuring that ports are gracefully taken out of service without unnecessary interruption of service and triggering of automatic recovery functionality that may occur during manual decommissioning of ports. Embodiments may provide for decommissioning of F_ports only, E_ports only, or both F_ports and E_ports. Where link aggregation is provided for in the fabric, decommissioning of a port in a…

QUALITY OF SERVICE IN A HETEROGENEOUS NETWORK

Granted: August 9, 2012
Application Number: 20120201138
A network device provides priority map storage configured to store one or more mapping data structures for mapping multiple priorities of a first priority scheme to multiple priorities of a second priority scheme. In addition, mapping logic of the network devices is coupled to the priority map storage and configured to translate a first priority of a first frame of the first priority scheme to a second priority of the second priority scheme and to assign the second priority to a second…

CONGESTION NOTIFICATION IN PRIVATE VLANS

Granted: July 12, 2012
Application Number: 20120176893
One embodiment of the present invention provides a switch. During operation, in a network with a private VLAN configuration, the switch allows a congestion notification message with an isolated virtual local area network identifier (VLAN ID) to be forwarded via an isolated VLAN port.

RESOURCES MONITORING AND RECOVERY

Granted: July 5, 2012
Application Number: 20120173713
Techniques for monitoring system resources such that a resource-related problem can be identified at a point in time when it is still possible to initiate a set of recovery actions for remedying the problem without disrupting services provided by the system. Various system resources may be monitored including but not limited to system memory (e.g., RAM), one or more processors, non-volatile memory (e.g., Compact Flash usage), and the like.

TECHNIQUES FOR STOPPING ROLLING REBOOTS

Granted: July 5, 2012
Application Number: 20120173859
Techniques for detecting rolling reboots and for taking responsive actions to stop rolling reboots.

PLUGGABLE TRANSCEIVER MODULE WITH ENHANCED CIRCUITRY

Granted: July 5, 2012
Application Number: 20120173935
Pluggable transceiver modules with additional functions and circuitry contained within the module. In a first embodiment, additional circuitry is added to determine bit error rates at the point of the module itself. This allows a much better diagnostic evaluation of location of problem. In an alternate embodiment, various logic is placed in the module. In a first alternate embodiment encryption/decryption units are placed in the converter module so that encryption and decryption…