Abstract: A system for an apparatus for extending the physical reach of an InfiniBand network. Methods and apparatus can connect an InfiniBand network to a long distance connection (e.g. WAN) while maintaining full 10 Gbit InfiniBand speeds and retaining the semantics specified by the InfiniBand Architecture (IBTA). A system can include an InfiniBand interface, a management block, packet routing, encapsulation/de-encapsulation, bulk memory buffer, and WAN interface, logic and circuits. The invention is applicable to efficiently moving large amounts of data over large distances using a single transport stream.

Abstract: A server is embedded directly into a storage subsystem. When moving between the storage subsystem domain and the server domain, data copying is minimized. Data management functionality written for traditional servers is implemented within a stand-alone storage subsystem, generally without software changes to the ported subsystems. The hardware executing the storage subsystem and server subsystem can be implemented in a way that provides reduced latency, compared to traditional architectures, when communicating between the storage subsystem and the server subsystem. When using a plurality of clustered controllers, traditional load-balancing software can be used to provide scalability of server functions. One end-result is a storage system that provides a wide range of data management functionality, that supports a heterogeneous collection of clients, that can be quickly customized for specific applications, that easily leverages existing third party software, and that provides optimal performance.