Facilitating communication between devices in a network

摘要

Certain of the present embodiments provide a mechanism to enable ports of initiator devices in a network to receive notifications of port state change that relate only to ports of target devices in the network. Certain others of the present embodiments provide a mechanism to enable ports of initiator devices to determine whether a notification of port state change pertains to a port of an initiator device or a target device.

主权项

1. A machine-implemented method for facilitating communication in a network, the method comprising:
an initiator port of an initiator device logging into a network device to communicate with a target device having a target port, the network device configured for receiving an input/output request from the initiator port and for reading and writing data at the target device accessible via the target port; the initiator port sending a registration request complying with a modified state change request protocol to the network device indicating that the initiator port should selectively receive notifications of state change in other devices in the network from the network device only when a state change occurs in ports of target devices in the network; determining whether an acknowledgement is received from the network device indicating that the network device accepted the registration request; and if it is determined that the network device accepted the registration request complying with the modified state change request protocol for selectively notifying the initiator port of state change notification, the initiator port of the initiator device configured to receive state change notification only when a port in one of the target devices changes its state; and if no acknowledgement is received from the network device within a predetermined time interval, the initiator port sending a different registration request to the network device complying with a standard state change request protocol and indicating that the initiator port should receive notifications of state change in other devices in the network from the network device when any of a port of a target device changes state or a port of another initiator device changes state.