System for bypassing a server to achieve higher throughput between data network and data storage system

Abstract

A networked system is described in which the majority of data bypass the server(s). This design improves the end-to-end performance of network access by achieving higher throughput between the network and storage system, improving reliability of the system, yet retaining the security, flexibility, and services that a server-based system provides. The apparatus that provides this improvement consists of a network interface, server computer interface, and storage interface. It also has a switching element and a high-layer protocol decoding and control unit. Incoming traffic (either from the network or storage system) is decoded and compared against a routing table. If there is a matching entry, it will be routed, according to the information to the network, the storage interface, or sent to the server for further processing (default). The routing table entries are set up by the server based on the nature of the applications when an application or user request initially comes in. Subsequently, barring any changes or errors, there will be no data exchange between the server and the device (although, a control message may still flow between them). There may also be a speed matching function between the network and storage, load balancing function for servers, and flow control for priority and QoS purposes. Because the majority of data traffic will bypass the bus and the operating system (OS) of the server(s), the reliability and throughput can also be significantly improved. Therefore, for a given capacity of a server, much more data traffic can be handled. Certain improvements concerning one particular embodiment of the invention are also disclosed.

What is claimed is:  
     
         1 . An apparatus for interconnecting at least one data network, at least one storage device, and at least one server, comprising: 
 a) a network interface;    b) a storage interface; and    c) a server interface;    wherein said apparatus can transfer data between any two of said at least one data network, said at least one storage device and said at least one server.    
     
     
         2 . The apparatus as described in  claim 1 , wherein said data comprises audio or video real time streaming traffic.  
     
     
         3 . The apparatus as described in  claim 1 , wherein said network interface is selected from the group essentially consisting of an Ethernet, ATM, or Sonet network or any other standard-based or proprietary network.  
     
     
         4 . The apparatus as described in  claim 1 , wherein said storage interface is selected from the group essentially consisting of a single disk, a raid system or a Storage Area Network.  
     
     
         5 . The apparatus as described in  claim 1 , wherein said server interface is a single server interface or a server cluster interface.  
     
     
         6 . The apparatus as described in  claim 1 , wherein said server is accessed through interfaces including peripheral component interconnect (PCI) or InfiniBand or other so called system I/O.  
     
     
         7 . The apparatus as described in  claim 1 , wherein said apparatus is located within the same physical housing as said server.  
     
     
         8 . The apparatus as described in  claim 1 , wherein said apparatus is physically housed separately from said server.  
     
     
         9 . The apparatus as described in  claim 1 , further comprising a switching element.  
     
     
         10 . The apparatus as described in  claim 9 , wherein said switching element has predetermined latency.  
     
     
         11 . The apparatus as described in  claim 1 , wherein said apparatus further comprises a routing element having a routing table.  
     
     
         12 . The apparatus as described in  claim 9 , wherein said switching element which may be a fully-connected crossbar, memory-based switching shared medium, or other switching construct.  
     
     
         13 . The apparatus as described in  claim 11 , wherein said routing table comprises information from the group essentially consisting of port to route mapping, priority, delay sensitivity, nature of the applications, and information for Quality of Service measurement.  
     
     
         14 . A method of using a switch, employing base multiple segmentation (BMS), whereby data flow is subdivided into segments which are each an integral multiple of a fixed base segment size.