Abstract: A plurality of asynchronous and isochronous transactions on a shared bus are scheduled such that asynchronous latency is minimized while providing a maximum latency for isochronous transactions. This is accomplished by splitting an allocated shared bus time into frames of equal length. When a bus request is received the technique determines whether the bus request in a current frame is for an asynchronous transaction or an isochronous transaction. If an asynchronous transaction bus request exists it is processed, otherwise an isochronous transaction bus request is processed. Bus requests for an isochronous transaction are queued if received while an asynchronous transaction is currently being processed. Asynchronous transactions are given priority until a current frame time has ended. In one embodiment, at the start of a new frame (which becomes the current frame) any queued isochronous transactions are processed before asynchronous transactions of the current frame are given priority.

Abstract: A system and method for facilitating both in-order and out-of-order packet reception in a SAN includes requester and responder nodes that maintain local copies of a message sequence number. Each request packet includes an ordering field specifying whether the packets must be received in-order. The request node includes a copy of the local sequence number in each packet transmitted and increments its local copy of the sequence number only for packets that must be received in order. The responder node includes the received message sequence number in all response packets and increments its local copy of the message sequence number only if the ordering field specifies that the packets must be received in order.