Network appliance with integrated local area network and storage area network extension services

摘要

Techniques and a network edge device are provided herein to extend local area networks (LANs) and storage area networks (SANs) beyond a data center while converging the associated local area network and storage area network host layers. A packet is received at a device in a network. It is determined if the packet is routed to a local or remote storage area network or local area network. In response to determining that the packet routed to a remote storage area network, storage area network extension services are performed with respect to the packet in order to extend the storage area network on behalf of a remote location. In response to determining that the packet is routed to a local local area network traffic, local area network extension services are performed with respect to the packet in order to extend the local area network on behalf of the remote location.

主权项

1. An apparatus comprising a line card within a switch device, the line card comprising:
a first network interface configured to interface with a local local area network (LAN) and a local storage area network (SAN); a second network interface configured to interface with a remote LAN and a remote SAN, and any intermediate networks, wherein the second network interface comprises a plurality of Ethernet interfaces configured to connect the local SAN and the local LAN to an intermediate network that provides connectivity to the remote SAN and the remote LAN; and a plurality of processors comprising a network processor configured to interface with the plurality of Ethernet interfaces, a forwarding processor configured to rewrite forwarding addresses, an Internet Protocol (IP) interface processor configure to provide an IP-to-fiber channel over Ethernet (FCOE) conversion interface, a virtual output queuing (VOQ) application specific integrated circuit (ASIC) configured to provide LAN extension services and VOQ functions for ingress and egress LAN and SAN traffic traversing the first network interface, and an arbiter interface module configured to arbitrate traffic for the VOQ ASIC, and a FCOE interface processor configured to provide SAN extension services for the ingress and egress LAN and SAN traffic traversing the first network interface; wherein the plurality of processors is configured to:
maintain a services mapping of a plurality of transformations for transmission of a received packet to the remote LAN and a plurality of transformations for transmission of the received packet to the remote SAN;receive a packet via at least one of the first or second network interfaces;determine if the packet is routed to the local SAN or the local LAN, or the remote LAN or the remote SAN based on packet header information;arbitrate the traffic for the FCOE interface processor and the VOQ ASIC;in response to determining that the packet is routed to the remote SAN, perform SAN extension services with respect to the packet in order to extend the local SAN to the remote SAN and route the packet to the remote SAN according to the services mapping;in response to determining that the packet is routed to the remote LAN, perform LAN extension services with respect to the packet in order to extend the local LAN to the remote LAN and route the packet to the remote LAN according to the services mapping;in response to determining that the packet is routed to the local SAN, route the packet to the local SAN;in response to determining that the packet is routed to the local LAN, route the packet to the local LAN; andotherwise forward or route the packet based on the packet header information.