JPH08265335A - Fiber channel standard system switch and connection method - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Abstract] [Purpose] To enable common control in both circuit switching mode and packet switching mode. [Structure] The information transmitted from the information processing device 1a is decomposed into fixed length information by the cell division unit 7a, and a header is generated in the header conversion unit 6a based on the N port login information transmitted from the information processing device 1a. The header is added to the fixed length cell and the autonomous routing switch 10
Is supplied to. The autonomous routing switch 10 selects an output terminal based on the information in the header, and the signal sent to the output terminal is reassembled by the frame assembly section 8b and supplied to the information processing apparatus 1b.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a fiber channel standard system switch for switching and connecting a system using a fiber channel standard.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, various standards such as SCSI and RS-232C have been used to connect a computer and an external device. These are individually established standards, and there is no inconvenience in connection, but when trying to combine devices of different standards, the versatility is quickly lost, and connection can be performed without special conversion. The reality was that there was nothing. Therefore, the individual standards are allowed as they are, and devices of different standards are connected to each other.
I, X3T9.3 / 93-254) has been proposed.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of a conventional system using this standard. When trying to connect information processing apparatuses 1a and 1b having different external connection standards, a fiber channel standard (hereinafter referred to as FCS) standard is used. The interface devices 2a and 2b adapted to the information processing device 1a,
An interface device 3 provided on the 1b side and external to the device
Connect a and 3b. The interface devices 3a and 3b on the external side of the device are connected to each other via a crosspoint switch 4 or a packet mode switch 5 in this example. If the information processing apparatuses 1a and 1b handle signals in the circuit switching mode for 1: 1 connection, the crosspoint switch 4 is selected, circuit switching is performed there, and signals in the packet mode are handled. If there is, the packet mode switch 5 is selected and packet switching processing is performed.

[0004]

However, such a conventional device requires the function of identifying whether the circuit switching mode or the packet switching mode is used, and the information transmission capacity of the transmission line is limited, so that the information transmission is not possible. It is necessary to allocate the capacity to the circuit switching mode and the packet switching mode, but since the capacity once allocated is fixed, if the information entered exceeds the capacity of the allocation once decided, the information of the excess will be It had a problem that it could not be transmitted.

[0005]

In order to solve such a problem, the present invention provides a header conversion unit for generating header information from destination information included in incoming input information and a fixed length cell for the input information. The cell division unit to be decomposed, the combining unit that adds the header information generated by the header conversion unit to the fixed-length information divided by the cell division unit to form a cell, and the output terminal specified by the header information of the cell It is provided with an autonomous routing switch for connecting information decomposed into fixed lengths, and a frame assembling unit for assembling signals sent to the output terminals of the autonomous routing switch into original information. According to the invention of claim 2, a header indicating the connection destination information requested by the calling side is generated from the N port login information sent from the calling side, and the information sent from the calling side is decomposed into fixed length information and generated. A cell is formed by adding a header, the autonomous routing switch is controlled based on the header information, the cell is transmitted to a desired output terminal, and the transmitted cell is returned to the original information.

[0006]

When the N side login information is sent from the calling side, header information is generated based on the N port login information and
The signal sent from the calling side is decomposed into fixed length information and the header information previously generated is added to form a cell, and the cell is supplied to the autonomous routing switch,
By controlling the autonomous routing switch with the header information, the fixed length cell is sent to the output terminal represented by the header information. The transmitted signals are reassembled and sent to the connection destination.

[0007]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of the present invention, and the same parts as those in FIG. When the information processing apparatus 1a is connected to the information processing apparatus 1b via the FCS switch 20 to perform information transmission, first, the information processing apparatus 1a and the FCS switch 20 are connected to each other, and therefore the interface connected to the information processing apparatus 1a is used. The F port login information is sent from the device 2a to the FCS switch 20. This enables the FCS switch 20
The interface device 3a of the
The FCS link with the S switch 20 is established. After the link is established, the N port login information having the destination N port address, which is the destination address in the FCS network of the information processing apparatus 1b on the other side trying to communicate,
It is sent from the interface device 2a to the interface device 3a.

The interface device 3a receives this N-port login information, and from this information, the FCS switch 20
The terminal number of the information processing device 1b, which is the connection destination in, is detected. As a result, the FCS switch 20 not shown
In accordance with the detected information, the central control device writes the autonomous routing information designating the connection destination terminal of the autonomous routing switch 10 in the header conversion unit 6a. At the same time, the N port login information from the information processing device 1a is divided into fixed length information by the cell division unit 7a. The N port login information divided by the cell division unit 7a is stored in the combining unit 9
The autonomous routing information written in the header conversion unit 6a in b is added as a header to form the cell shown in FIG. 2, and the cell is supplied to the autonomous routing switch 10.

In the autonomous routing switch 10, the internal switch element autonomously performs a connection operation based on each bit of the header information of the cell shown in FIG. 2, thereby connecting the cell to the output terminal of the autonomous routing switch 10. Has become. The header information is the information processing apparatus 1b as described above.
Since the information indicating the connection destination is written, the autonomous routing switch 10 is connected according to the information, and the cell combined by the combining unit 9a is carried via the connected route.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an example of the autonomous routing switch 10. In this example, a 3 × 3 individual switch 1 is used.
It is composed of 0a to 10m. In this example, when the header information is "0", the cells supplied to the input terminals are connected to the upper side of the individual switches 10a to 10m as shown by the bold line in FIG. 3, and when the header information is "1". As shown by the dotted line, it is connected to the lower side.

Therefore, as shown in FIG. 2, when the header information is "000", all the first to third bits are "0", so that the individual switches 10d, 10b,
10c is connected to the upper side as shown in the figure, and is connected to the terminal 000.

The cells thus sent to the output terminal of the autonomous routing switch 10 are supplied to the frame assembling section 8b, where they are assembled into the original N port login information. The assembled N port login information is sent from the interface device 3b to the interface 2b, and the information processing device 1b and the FCS switch 20 are connected. When this connection is completed, the connection of the route from the information processing device 1a to the information processing device 2b is completed.

After that, data information is sent from the interface 2a of the information processing apparatus 1a to the interface apparatus 3a of the FCS switch 20 in the form of FCS frame.
In the FCS switch 20, the autonomous routing information written in the header conversion unit 6a according to the N port login information is added as header information of a fixed length cell divided into a plurality of fixed length cells by the cell division unit 7a.

The autonomous routing switch 10 autonomously sends a fixed length cell to an output terminal according to autonomous routing information. Then, the transmitted cells are assembled into original information by the frame assembling unit 8b, and the interface devices 3b, 2
It is given to the information processing apparatus 1b via b.

The FCS switch 20 divides the information to be transmitted in this manner into fixed-length information, and the divided information is attached with a header and sent out as fixed-length cells, whereby the autonomous routing switch used in ATM is used. You will be able to. Therefore, whether the information to be transmitted is the information for the circuit switching system or the information for the packet switching, it is all divided into fixed length cells. Therefore, the fixed length divided cells are used in ATM. It can be commonly processed by the existing technology. Therefore, it is not necessary to prepare both the crosspoint switch and the packet mode switch on the transmission path side. That is, since the switches can be exchanged by the common switch, the circuit switching capacity can be prepared in common instead of individually.

When the circuit switching capacity is individually prepared, even if the capacity of the other side is surplus, it is often not possible to use it for other purposes due to the difference in hardware configuration, so one capacity becomes insufficient. On the other hand, the capacity is likely to be surplus. It is difficult to allocate capacity, but since all information is converted into fixed length cells as in this example, the circuit switching capacity can be used in common, and in some cases most of it is used for circuit switching. At other times, the majority can be used for packet switching, obviating the need for capacity allocation at all.

That is, since the external interface can be commonly used by using the fiber channel standard system, both the circuit switching and the packet switching can be handled. It became necessary to prepare two types of switches for use. As a result, it becomes necessary to determine whether the input information is for circuit switching or packet switching in order to exchange the two, and to connect to the exchange switch corresponding to the input information accordingly.

In other words, the use of the fiber channel standard system increases the expandability, which causes various problems. Since these are caused by exchanging input information as they are, in the present invention, whatever the input information is, it is decomposed into all fixed length cells and used in ATM. The cells are output by assembling the cells output to the desired output terminals to the original output by exchanging them by the autonomous routing switch.

By doing so, it is not necessary to identify whether the input information is circuit-switched or packet-switched, and accordingly, it is not necessary to allocate the switching capacity for circuit switching and packet switching, and the input information It has become possible to handle the maximum traffic of.

[0020]

As described above, according to the present invention, the signal transmitted from the transmitting side is decomposed into fixed length cells, and the header information generated based on the N port login information transmitted from the transmitting side is added thereto. Since the header information controls the autonomous routing switch, there is an effect that both the circuit switching mode information and the packet switching mode information can be processed in common.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a state in which a header is added to information decomposed into fixed lengths.

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating an example of an autonomous routing switch.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing an example of a conventional device.

[Explanation of symbols]

1a, 1b ... Information processing device, 2a, 2b, 3a, 3b ...
Interface device, 6a, 6b ... Header conversion unit, 7
a, 7b ... Cell division section, 8a, 8b ... Frame assembly section,
9a, 9b ... Combining unit, 10 ... Autonomous routing switch, 20 ... FCS switch.

─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁶ Identification code Internal reference number FI Technical display location H04B 10/12 H04L 12/64 H04Q 3/00

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A header conversion unit for generating header information from destination information included in incoming input information in a switch for a fiber channel standard system for switching and connecting both packet switching mode information and circuit switching mode information. A cell dividing unit that decomposes the input information into fixed-length information; and a combining unit that forms cells by adding the header information generated by the header converting unit to the fixed-length information divided by the cell dividing unit. An autonomous routing switch that connects the cells decomposed into the fixed length to an output terminal specified by the header information, and a frame assembly unit that assembles a signal sent to the output terminal of the autonomous routing switch into original information. A switch for Fiber Channel standard system that is equipped with. 2. A connection method for switching and connecting both packet switching mode information and circuit switching mode information by means of a switch for a fiber channel standard system, from N port login information including connection destination information sent from the originating side. A header indicating the connection destination information requested by the caller side is generated, the information sent from the caller side is decomposed into fixed-length information, and the generated header is added to form a cell. A connection method characterized by controlling an autonomous routing switch based on this to send a cell to a desired output terminal and returning the sent cell to the original information form.