Claims
- 1. A method for transmitting control information during transmission of packets, the method comprising:
transmitting symbols of the packet, the symbols of the packet including in-band symbols; and when control information is to be transmitted,
stopping the transmitting of the symbols of the packet; transmitting an out-of-band symbol representing the control information; and after the out-of-band symbol is transmitted, continuing with the transmitting of the symbols of the packet that have not yet been transmitted.
- 2. The method of claim 1 wherein the out-of-band symbol is one of two out-of-band symbols that form a primitive.
- 3. The method of claim 2 wherein one symbol of the primitive has a negative disparity and the other symbol of the primitive has a positive disparity.
- 4. The method of claim 2 wherein the primitive has a neutral disparity.
- 5. The method of claim 2 wherein the transmitting of the primitive has minimal effect on running disparity.
- 6. The method of claim 1 wherein the transmitting of the out-of-band symbol has minimal effect on running disparity.
- 7. The method of claim 1 wherein an in-band symbol is transition optimized and an out-of-band symbol is not transition optimized.
- 8. The method of claim 1 including receiving the symbols of the packet via one port of a switch and transmitting the symbols of the packet via another port of the switch.
- 9. The method of claim 1 wherein the control information controls communications nodes of a storage area network.
- 10. The method of claim 1 wherein the control information controls a data store device.
- 11. The method of claim 1 wherein the symbols of the packet can include non-contiguous out-of-band symbols and wherein the control information includes contiguous out-of-band symbols.
- 12. A method for receiving control information while receiving a packet of symbols, the method comprising:
receiving a first portion of symbols of the packet, the symbols of the packet being in-band symbols; after receiving the first portion of symbols of the packet, receiving an out-of-band symbol representing the control information; and after receiving the out-of-band symbol, receiving a second portion of the symbols of the packet wherein the control information interrupts the reception of the packet of symbols.
- 13. The method of claim 12 wherein the out-of-band symbol is one symbol of primitive comprising multiple symbols.
- 14. The method of claim 13 wherein the primitive comprises two out-of-band symbols.
- 15. The method of claim 12 including combining the first portion of the symbols with the second portion of symbol to form the packet of symbols.
- 16. The method of claim 12 wherein the control information is link control information.
- 17. The method of claim 12 wherein the method is performed by a communications node of a storage link network.
- 18. The method of claim 12 wherein the method is performed by a switch.
- 19. A communications device for transmitting control information during transmission of packets, comprising:
a packet transmission component that transmits symbols of the packet, the symbols of the packet being in-band symbols; and a control transmission component that interrupts the transmission of the symbols of the packet and transmits an out-of-band symbol representing control information wherein the packet transmission component resumes transmitting the symbols of the packet after transmission of the out-of-band symbol representing control information.
- 20. The communications device of claim 19 wherein out-of-band symbol is one of two out-of-band symbols that form a primitive.
- 21. The communications device of claim 20 wherein one symbol of the primitive has a negative disparity and the other symbol of the primitive has a positive disparity.
- 22. The communications device of claim 20 wherein the primitive has a neutral disparity.
- 23. The communications device of claim 20 wherein the transmitting of the primitive has minimal effect on running disparity.
- 24. The communications device of claim 19 wherein the transmitting of the out-of-band symbol has minimal effect on running disparity.
- 25. The communications device of claim 19 wherein an in-band symbol is transition optimized and an out-of-band symbol is not transition optimized.
- 26. The communications device of claim 19 wherein the control information controls communications nodes of a storage link network.
- 27. The communications device of claim 19 wherein the control information controls a data store device.
- 28. The communications device of claim 19 wherein the symbols of the packet can include non-contiguous out-of-band symbols and wherein the control information includes contiguous out-of-band symbols.
CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
[0001] This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 60/252,724 entitled “METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR STORAGE I/O WITH FULL-DUPLEX ONE-TIME BLOCK I/O TRANSFER AND ADAPTIVE PAYLOAD SIZING,” filed Nov. 22, 2000, and is related to U.S. patent application Ser. No. ______ entitled “METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR PLESIOSYNCHRONOUS COMMUNICATIONS WITH NULL INSERTION AND REMOVAL” (Attorney Docket No. 371798002US); U.S. patent application Ser. No. ______, entitled “METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR TRANSITION-CONTROLLED SELECTIVE BLOCK INVERSION COMMUNICATIONS” (Attorney Docket No. 371798007US); U.S. patent application Ser. No. ______ entitled “COMMUNICATIONS ARCHITECTURE FOR STORAGE-BASED DEVICES” (Attorney Docket No. 371798008US1); U.S. patent application Ser. No. ______ entitled “METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR PACKET ORDERING BASED ON PACKET TYPE” (Attorney Docket No. 371798013US); U.S. patent application Ser. No. ______ entitled “METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR HOST HANDLING OF COMMUNICATIONS ERRORS” (Attorney Docket No. 371798014US); U.S. patent application Ser. No. ______ entitled “METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR DYNAMIC SEGMENTATION OF COMMUNICATIONS PACKETS” (Attorney Docket No. 371798015US); U.S. patent application Ser. No. ______ entitled “METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR ASYMMETRIC PACKET ORDERING BETWEEN COMMUNICATIONS DEVICES” (Attorney Docket No. 371798016US); U.S. patent application Ser. No. ______ entitled “METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR COMMUNICATING CONTROL INFORMATION VIA OUT-OF-BAND SYMBOLS” (Attorney Docket No. 371798017US); U.S. patent application Ser. No. ______ entitled “METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR INTEGRATING PACKET TYPE INFORMATION WITH SYNCHRONIZATION SYMBOLS” (Attorney Docket No. 371798018US); U.S. patent application Ser. No. ______ entitled “METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR NESTING OF COMMUNICATIONS PACKETS” (Attorney Docket No. 371798019US); U.S. patent application Ser. No. ______ entitled “COMMUNICATIONS ARCHITECTURE FOR MEMORY-BASED DEVICES” (Attorney Docket No. 371798012US); U.S. patent application Ser. No. ______ entitled “METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR DC-BALANCING AT THE PHYSICAL LAYER” (Attorney Docket No. 371798020US); and U.S. patent application Ser. No. ______ entitled “MULTISECTION MEMORY BANK SYSTEM” (Attorney Docket No. 371798021 US, which are all hereby incorporated by reference in their entirety.
Provisional Applications (1)
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Number |
Date |
Country |
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60252724 |
Nov 2000 |
US |