US 6160813

Patent Overview — US 6,160,813 A

Title: Fibre channel switching system and method
Patent number: US 6,160,813 A
Application number: US 08/823,025
Inventors: David C. Banks; Steven L. Farnworth; Bent Stoevhase; Paul Ramsay
Assignee (per source): Brocade Communications Systems LLC (listed assignees may be inaccurate)
Priority/filing date: 1997-03-21
Publication/grant date: 2000-12-12
Status (per source): Expired – Lifetime; anticipated expiration 2017-03-21

Purpose. The patent relates generally to network switching devices and more particularly to Fibre Channel switching devices. It addresses the Fibre Channel fabric topology, in which a switching fabric built from one or more Fibre Channel switches provides a bidirectional connection from one node to another, with each node managing only a simple point-to-point connection to the fabric.

Plain-language scope. According to the excerpt, the switching system has a data switching path and a message switching path. The data switching path includes a shared central memory and memory control circuitry to transfer data frames from a receiving port to a transmitting port with high bandwidth and low latency. The shared memory includes memory modules configured for time-sliced access by each port, with each port assigned its own time slot for each memory module, permitting simultaneous access. Data frames are striped across the memory modules by dividing a frame into sub-portions, storing each sub-portion in a memory module, with the start of the frame stored in a first module and remaining portions stored in modules accessed sequentially per the time-slot protocol. Each frame is stored in a plurality of contiguous buffer lines, where a buffer line is a single memory location across all memory modules, and a frame buffer comprises 32 buffer lines.

Source: https://patents.google.com/patent/US6160813/en

What the excerpt does not establish: It does not provide claim text for independent or dependent claims, a complete written description, drawing details, prior-art references, the message switching path's operation, or any information about litigation, ownership transfers, validity, or enforceability.