IP Library Granted Patent US 8,885,657
Granted Patent B2
US 8,885,657 · App. 12/614,254 · Granted Nov 11, 2014

Automatic switch port selection

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Quick Facts
Patent No.
US 8,885,657
App. No.
12/614,254
Granted
Nov 11, 2014
Kind
B2
Abstract

Back pressure is mapped within a network, and primary bottlenecks are distinguished from dependent bottlenecks. Further, the presently disclosed technology is capable of performing network healing operations designed to reduce the data load on primary bottlenecks while ignoring dependent bottlenecks. Still further, the presently disclosed technology teaches identifying and/or suggesting a switch port for adding a node to the network. More specifically, various implementations analyze traffic load and back pressure in a network, identify primary and dependent bottlenecks, resolve the primary bottlenecks, collect new node parameters, and/or select a switch port for the new node. Further, a command can be sent to a selected switch to activate an indicator on the selected port. New node parameters may include new node type, maximum load, minimum load, time of maximum load, time of minimum load and type of data associated with the new node.

Claims (36)

1. A computing system comprising:

a plurality of switch ports, a first portion of said plurality of switch ports being connected ports configured for connection to switches in the computing system and at least one port of said plurality of switch ports being an unconnected port capable of connection with a device and not configured as connected to a device; and

switch port selector logic capable of selecting a port on a switch device based on back pressure mapping,

wherein back pressure mapping includes the identification of independent back pressure systems present in a network,

wherein a back pressure system is based on at least one primary bottlenecked port and includes the bottlenecked ports dependent therefrom, and

wherein the selected port represents one of said at least one unconnected port.

2. The computing system of claim 1 wherein the computing system is implemented in one or more switch devices.

3. The computing system of claim 1 wherein the computing system is implemented in one or more administrative workstations.

4. The computing system of claim 1 wherein the computing system is implemented in a combination of one or more administrative workstations and one or more switches devices.

5. The computing system of claim 1 further comprising:

bottleneck detection logic capable of identifying one or more bottlenecked ports in the computing system.

6. The computing system of claim 1 further comprising:

a back pressure system identifier capable of identifying two or more independent back pressure systems in a network.

7. The computing system of claim 1 further comprising:

storage configured to store switch port selection criteria used by the switch port selector to select the port on the switch based on back pressure mapping.

8. The computing system of claim 1 wherein the selected port on the switch device is positioned within a communications route through a network between a first new node device and a second new node device, the communications route being selected to satisfy one or more port selection criteria.

9. The computing system of claim 8 wherein the one or more port selection criteria include a rule to select the communications route to avoid one or more bottlenecked ports.

10. A method comprising:

selecting a network port on a switch based on back pressure mapping, the switch comprising a plurality of network ports, a first portion of said plurality of network ports being connected ports configured for connection to switches in the computing system and at least one port of said plurality of network ports being an unconnected port capable of connection with a device and not configured as connected to a device,

wherein back pressure mapping includes the identification of independent back pressure systems present in a network,

wherein a back pressure system is based on at least one primary bottlenecked port and includes the bottlenecked ports dependent therefrom, and

wherein the selected network port represents one of said at least one unconnected port.

11. The method of claim 10 further comprising:

detecting one or more bottlenecked ports on a switch device in a network; and

performing the back pressure mapping based on the one or more detected bottlenecked ports.

12. The method of claim 10 wherein the selected port on the switch is positioned within a communications route through a network between a first new node and a second new node, the communications route being selected to satisfy one or more port selection criteria.

13. One or more non-transitory processor-readable storage media encoding computer-executable instructions for executing on a computer system a computing process, the computing process comprising:

selecting a network port on a switch based on back pressure mapping, the switch comprising a plurality of network ports, a first portion of said plurality of network ports being connected ports configured for connection to switches in the computing system and at least one port of said plurality of network ports being an unconnected port capable of connection with a device and not configured as connected to a device, wherein back pressure mapping includes the identification of independent back pressure systems present in a network, wherein a back pressure system is based on at least one primary bottlenecked port and includes the bottlenecked ports dependent therefrom, and

wherein the selected network port represents one of said at least one unconnected port.

14. The one or more non-transitory processor-readable storage media of claim 13 wherein the computing process further comprises:

detecting one or more bottlenecked ports; and

performing the back pressure mapping based on the one or more detected bottlenecked ports.

15. The one or more non-transitory processor-readable storage media of claim 13 wherein the operation of performing back pressure mapping comprises:

identifying two or more independent back pressure systems in a network.

16. The one or more non-transitory processor-readable storage media of claim 13 wherein the selected port on the switch is positioned within a communications route through a network between a first new node device and a second new node device, the communications route being selected to satisfy one or more port selection criteria.

17. The one or more non-transitory processor-readable storage media of claim 16 wherein the one or more port selection criteria include a rule to select the communications route to avoid one or more bottlenecked ports.

Assignments (5)
ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNOR'S INTEREST Recorded Oct 18, 2018
From: BROCADE COMMUNICATIONS SYSTEMS LLC
To: AVAGO TECHNOLOGIES INTERNATIONAL SALES PTE. LIMITED
Reel/Frame 047270/0247 →
CHANGE OF NAME Recorded Dec 13, 2017
From: BROCADE COMMUNICATIONS SYSTEMS, INC.
To: BROCADE COMMUNICATIONS SYSTEMS LLC
Reel/Frame 044891/0536 →
RELEASE OF SECURITY INTEREST Recorded Jan 22, 2015
From: WELLS FARGO BANK, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION, AS COLLATERAL AGENT
To: BROCADE COMMUNICATIONS SYSTEMS, INC.; FOUNDRY NETWORKS, LLC
Reel/Frame 034804/0793 →
SECURITY AGREEMENT Recorded Jan 20, 2010
From: BROCADE COMMUNICATIONS SYSTEMS, INC.; FOUNDRY NETWORKS, LLC; INRANGE TECHNOLOGIES CORPORATION; MCDATA CORPORATION; MCDATA SERVICES CORPORATION
To: WELLS FARGO BANK, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION, AS COLLATERAL AGENT
Reel/Frame 023814/0587 →
ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNOR'S INTEREST Recorded Nov 25, 2009
From: ATKINSON, MICHAEL; ABRAHAM, VINEET; GNANASEKARAN, SATHISH; SINHA, RISHI
To: BROCADE COMMUNICATIONS SYSTEMS, INC.
Reel/Frame 023570/0736 →