Abstract: A virtual switch for use in fiber channel applications is described herein. In an exemplary implementation, a virtual switch is created. The virtual switch stores control-traffic-information associated with a device in a remote autonomous region of a fabric. The device has a domain ID associated with the autonomous region in which it is located. A virtual domain ID associated with the virtual switch is assigned to the device. Accordingly, the virtual domain ID is provided to other autonomous regions for sharing the device.

Abstract: Multiple fiber channel (FC) storage area networks (SANs) are interconnected over wide-area networks (WANs) to form a long-distance (e.g., greater than about 10 km) distributed storage area network (DSAN) that includes FC to Internet Protocol (IP) over WAN (e.g., SONET or gigabit Ethernet (GE)) gateways that interwork the FC buffer-to-buffer and IP/WAN flow-control mechanisms appropriate to either the SONET or GE link layers using an additive increase, multiplicative decrease (AIMD) congestion avoidance algorithm. The gateways effectively spoof the FC buffer-to-buffer credit mechanism on the FC-interface side of the gateway, while using an IP Internet control message protocol (ICMP) quench mechanism on all WAN links and additionally the IEEE 802.3 pause packet flow control mechanism on gigabit Ethernet (GE) WAN links in combination, in both cases, with a rate-throttling mechanism at the FC<->IP converter.

Abstract: A virtual switch for use in fibre channel applications is described herein. In an exemplary implementation, a virtual switch is created. The virtual switch stores control-traffic-information associated with a device in a remote autonomous region of a fabric. The device has a domain ID associated with the autonomous region in which it is located. A virtual domain ID associated with the virtual switch is assigned to the device. Accordingly, the virtual domain ID is provided to other autonomous regions for sharing the device.

Abstract: Multiple fiber channel (FC) storage area networks (SANs) are interconnected over wide-area networks (WANs) to form a long-distance (e.g., greater than about 10 km) distributed storage area network (DSAN) that includes FC to Internet Protocol (IP) over WAN (e.g., SONET or gigabit Ethernet (GE)) gateways that interwork the FC buffer-to-buffer and IP/WAN flow-control mechanisms appropriate to either the SONET or GE link layers using an additive increase, multiplicative decrease (AIMD) congestion avoidance algorithm. The gateways effectively spoof the FC buffer-to-buffer credit mechanism on the FC-interface side of the gateway, while using an IP Internet control message protocol (ICMP) quench mechanism on all WAN links and additionally the IEEE 802.3 pause packet flow control mechanism on gigabit Ethernet (GE) WAN links in combination, in both cases, with a rate-throttling mechanism at the FC<->IP converter.