High performance ethernet networking utilizing existing fibre channel fabric hba technology

Abstract

This is directed to providing Fibre Channel over Ethernet communication. For example a Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) enabled device (such as a computer) may include a Fibre Channel over Ethernet Adapter (FCoEA). The FCoEA may include an HBA module. The HBA module may be configured to communicate over the Fibre Channel protocol. The FCoE enabled device may process and encapsulate the HBA module's communication in order to send them over an Ethernet network instead. The FCoE enabled device may process communications directed to various Fibre Channel fabric services by utilizing existing Ethernet services, such as an iSNS server. Thus, the FCoE enabled device can emulate a Fibre Channel network for the HBA module using the Ethernet network and one or more Existing Ethernet services/servers.

1 . The method of  claim 47 , comprising:
 generating Fibre Channel communications by a Host Bus Adapter (HBA) module of the networked device, the communications including at least some communications directed to a Fibre Channel fabric service;   translating the Fibre Channel communications to Ethernet communications by Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) module of the networked device, the translating including translating the communications directed to a Fibre Channel service to communications directed to an Ethernet service; and   sending the Ethernet communications over an Ethernet network by the FCoE module.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , comprising:
 receiving Ethernet communications by the FCoE module from the Ethernet network, the received communications including at least some communications received from an Ethernet service;   translating the Ethernet communications into incoming Fibre Channel communications by the FCoE module, the translating including translating the communications received from the Ethernet service to communications associated with a Fibre Channel fabric service; and   sending the incoming Fibre Channel communications to the HBA module.   
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 2 , wherein at least one of the Fibre Channel communications that are directed to a Fibre Channel fabric service is addressed to a name server or another Fabric service in a Fibre Channel network, and the translating of the Fibre Channel communications include translating the at least one of the Fibre Channel communications into communications formatted for and addressed to an Internet Storage Name Service (iSNS) server within the Ethernet network. 
     
     
         4 - 7 . (canceled) 
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 3 , comprising:
 saving the virtual Fibre Channel address and the Ethernet address in a table; and   sending the virtual Fibre Channel address to the HBA modules.   
     
     
         9 - 11 . (canceled) 
     
     
         12 . A method for operating a networking device, comprising:
 connecting an FCoE (Fibre Channel over Ethernet) module of the networking device to an Ethernet network; and   virtualizing a Fibre Channel network for an HBA (Host Bus Adapter) module, the virtual Fibre Channel network being based on the Ethernet network, the virtualizing of a Fibre Channel network including
 producing a plurality of Fibre Channel fabric addresses using a seed value received from an Internet Storage Name Service (iSNS) server, 
 mapping the plurality of Fibre Channel fabric addresses to Ethernet addresses, and 
 tunneling Fibre Channel frames over Ethernet frames. 
   
     
     
         13 . The method of  claim 12 , wherein the method comprises virtualizing a Fibre Channel name server for the HBA module by utilizing the iSNS server. 
     
     
         14 - 26 . (canceled) 
     
     
         27 . The networking device of  claim 48 , wherein the networking device comprises a Host Bus Adapter (HBA) module configured to communicate with a Fibre Channel network, the FCoE module being connected to the HBA module and to an Ethernet network and configured to provide a virtual Fibre Channel network to the HBA module, the virtual Fibre Channel network being based on the Ethernet network which includes one or more Ethernet servers, the providing a virtual Fibre Channel network to the HBA module including using the one or more Ethernet Servers to provide virtual Fibre Channel fabric services to the HBA module. 
     
     
         28 . The networking device of  claim 27 , wherein the HBA module is further configured to communicate with a name server or another Fabric service within a Fibre Channel network. 
     
     
         29 . The networking device of  claim 28 , wherein the FCoE module is further configured to access a DHCP server to determine the address of the iSNS server. 
     
     
         30 . The networking device of  claim 28 , wherein the FCoE module comprises a service mapper for translating Fibre Channel name server and other Fabric service based communications into iSNS based communications and iSNS based communications into Fibre Channel name server and other Fabric service based communications. 
     
     
         31 . The networking device of  claim 48 , wherein the FCoE module is configured to construct a Fibre Channel address for the networking device and register the Fibre Channel address with the iSNS server. 
     
     
         32 . The networking device of  claim 28 , wherein the FCoE module comprises an iSNS client for communicating with the iSNS server. 
     
     
         33 . (canceled) 
     
     
         34 . The networking device of  claim 28 , wherein the FCoE module further comprises an FCoE data transfer element, which is utilized to process communications between the HBA module and devices in the Ethernet network other than the iSNS server. 
     
     
         35 . The networking device of  claim 34 , wherein the FCoE data transfer element includes a table of pairs of addresses, each pair of addresses including an Ethernet address of a device connected to the Ethernet network and a Fibre Channel address (N_Port_ID) associated with the device. 
     
     
         36 . (canceled) 
     
     
         38 . A computer including the networking device of  claim 48 . 
     
     
         39 . A networked storage device including the networking device of  claim 48 . 
     
     
         40 - 46 . (canceled) 
     
     
         47 . A method for operating a networking device, comprising:
 producing a virtual Fibre Channel address using a seed value received from an Internet Storage Name Service (iSNS) server;   mapping a Ethernet address to the virtual Fibre Channel address; and   communicating a Fibre Channel packet encapsulated in an Ethernet frame, the Ethernet frame comprising the Ethernet address.   
     
     
         48 . A networking device comprising:
 an Ethernet interface operable to communicate a Fibre Channel packet encapsulated in an Ethernet frame, the Ethernet frame comprising an Ethernet address of a destination device; and   a FCoE (Fibre Channel over Ethernet) module operable to map the Ethernet address to a virtual Fibre Channel address, the virtual Fibre Channel address being produced using a seed value received by the communication processor from an Internet Storage Name Service (iSNS) server.