QoS Translator for Heterogeneous Network Priority Mapping
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) networks face challenges in providing quality of service (QoS) due to incompatibilities between Fibre Channel and Ethernet protocols, making it difficult to manage and maintain QoS across protocol boundaries, especially when different priority schemes are used in heterogeneous networks.
Innovation Solution
A network device with priority map storage and mapping logic that translates priorities from one network protocol (e.g., Fibre Channel) to another (e.g., Ethernet) using mapping data structures, ensuring consistent QoS across different network protocols and priority schemes by assigning appropriate priorities to frame instances before transmission.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If FCoE is used to allow Fibre Channel traffic to use Ethernet network, then network versatility is improved, but QoS management complexity increases due to protocol incompatibilities
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a QoS translator as an intermediary component that sits between Fibre Channel and Ethernet networks. This translator maintains separate QoS contexts for each protocol and performs translation only at protocol boundaries, allowing each network to operate with its native QoS mechanisms while ensuring compatibility across the heterogeneous environment.
Solution Approach 2:
The QoS translation function is segmented into discrete components: a Fibre Channel QoS context manager, an Ethernet QoS context manager, and a translation engine that operates only at protocol boundaries. This segmentation allows each component to be optimized independently and simplifies the overall system architecture.
2Reliability
If protocol-specific QoS levels are used in Fibre Channel and Ethernet networks, then protocol optimization is improved, but QoS consistency across protocol boundaries deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies local quality by maintaining protocol-specific QoS contexts that are optimized for each network type. The Fibre Channel context uses FC-specific priority levels and the Ethernet context uses 802.1p priorities, allowing each protocol to operate with its optimal QoS mechanisms while ensuring consistency through the translation layer.
Solution Approach 2:
The QoS translator acts as an intermediary that receives priority information from one protocol context and translates it to the corresponding priority in the other protocol context. This ensures that QoS consistency is maintained across protocol boundaries while allowing each protocol to retain its optimized QoS characteristics.
3Reliability
If in-order lossless communications are required in Fibre Channel, then data integrity is improved, but network flexibility deteriorates when translating to Ethernet
Solution Approach 1:
The QoS translator serves as an intermediary that preserves the lossless communication requirement by maintaining strict priority ordering and preventing packet reordering during translation. The translator ensures that packets arriving in a specific priority order in Fibre Channel emerge in the same relative order in Ethernet, maintaining data integrity while allowing protocol translation.
Solution Approach 2:
The system performs preliminary actions by establishing QoS contexts and translation rules before traffic flows between protocols. Priority mapping tables are pre-configured to define how Fibre Channel priorities translate to Ethernet priorities, ensuring that lossless communication requirements are met before data transmission begins.
Data Source
AI summary
A network device provides priority map storage configured to store one or more mapping data structures for mapping multiple priorities of a first priority scheme to multiple priorities of a second priority scheme. In addition, mapping logic of the network devices is coupled to the priority map storage and configured to translate a first priority of a first frame of the first priority scheme to a second priority of the second priority scheme and to assign the second priority to a second frame carrying payload of the first frame in preparation of transmission of the second frame in accordance with the second priority scheme.