Inventors:
David C. Banks - San Jose CA, US
Kreg A. Martin - Los Gatos CA, US
Shunjia Yu - San Jose CA, US
Jieming Zhu - Fremont CA, US
Kevan K. Kwong - Pleasanton CA, US
Assignee:
Brocade Communications Systems, Inc. - San Jose CA
International Classification:
H04L 12/56
US Classification:
370386, 370387, 370388, 370394, 370327
Abstract:
In a communication network system having a multi-switch Fiber Channel fabric, adjacent switches are communicatively coupled together by a plurality of links. The links are selectively determined to join a trunked group for enabling frames received at one switch to be routed over the links in the trunked group to the adjacent switch in an evenly distributed manner. In one embodiment, a link within the trunked group is coupled to a pair of ports residing on adjacent switches each having a designated trunking master port. The traffic load at one switch is routed through the trunking master port which distributes the load across multiple links and guarantees that the load is received at the adjacent switch with “in-order” delivery.
