A novel fabric switch is provided. The switch includes a tunnel management apparatus that maintains a local inter-switch tunnel and an inter-fabric tunnel. The local inter-switch tunnel facilitates communication to a switch in a local fabric switch. The inter-fabric tunnel facilitates communication to a remote fabric switch. The switch further includes a packet header management apparatus that decapsulates a packet received from the local inter-switch tunnel and encapsulates the packet with a new tunnel header for transmission over the inter-fabric tunnel.

A network switch comprises a primary port, coupled to a first network device through a primary link; a backup port, coupled to a second network device through a backup link; a processing unit, configured to execute a program code; and a storage unit, coupled to the processing unit, configured to store the program code to indicate to the processing unit to execute a link recovery method for dual-homing. The link recovery method comprises receiving a plurality of first data packets via the backup port to obtain first packet information when the backup port is in a forwarding state; receiving a plurality of second data packets via the primary port to obtain second packet information in response to detecting an electrical signal from the primary link; comparing the second packet information with the first packet information to obtain a comparison result; and performing link change according to the comparison result.

A network switch comprises a primary port, coupled to a first network device through a primary link; a backup port, coupled to a second network device through a backup link; a processing unit, configured to execute a program code; and a storage unit, coupled to the processing unit, configured to store the program code to indicate to the processing unit to execute a link recovery method for dual-homing. The link recovery method comprises receiving a plurality of first data packets via the backup port to obtain first packet information when the backup port is in a forwarding state; receiving a plurality of second data packets via the primary port to obtain second packet information in response to detecting an electrical signal from the primary link; comparing the second packet information with the first packet information to obtain a comparison result; and performing link change according to the comparison result.

A computing system includes top-of-rack switches, a spine switch, and PIN blades arranged between the top-of-rack switches and resource blades. Each of the PIN blades includes a plurality of processing blocks, and each of the processing blocks includes a functional unit that performs predetermined processing on data included in the received packet.

A computing system includes top-of-rack switches, a spine switch, and PIN blades arranged between the top-of-rack switches and resource blades. Each of the PIN blades includes a plurality of processing blocks, and each of the processing blocks includes a functional unit that performs predetermined processing on data included in the received packet.

System and method for supporting configurable legacy P_Key table abstraction using a bitmap based hardware implementation in a high performance computing environment. A mapping table in DRAM can be provided through the use of a software based SMA that implements the mapping table. With this mapping table, it is possible to provide a legacy compliant view of a bit map based P_Key table. Such a legacy compliant view can be called a virtual P_Key table, or a configurable legacy P_Key table abstraction.

System and method for supporting node role attributes in a high performance computing environment. In accordance with an embodiment, a node role attribute can comprise a vendor defined subnet management attribute. When a subnet manager attempts to discover a high performance computing environment, such as an InfiniBand subnet, or a switch topology, identifying a topology is quite complex when subnet manager can only observe connectivity, without context behind the connectivity (the roles of the different nodes in the connectivity). However, when a subnet has a node role attribute enabled, the subnet manager can map the interconnect more effectively as it can discover not only the connectivity during the initial sweep, but it can also discover the role of each node discovered, thus leading to a more efficient interconnect discovery.

System and method for providing an InfiniBand network device having a vendor-specific attribute that contains a signature of the vendor. An exemplary embodiment can provide an InfiniBand compatible network device from a vendor. The vendor can further define a subnet management attribute, where the subnet management attribute has an attribute identifier in the range of attribute identifiers reserved in the InfiniBand specification. The vendor can define a signature bit string that is a fixed number of bits in length and a number of offset bits, where the number of offset bits indicates the start of the signature bit string within the attribute. The subnet management attribute can be configured with the signature bit string starting where the offset bits indicate, and the subnet management attribute can be included as an attribute of the InfiniBand compatible network device.

System and method representing PMA attributes as SMA attributes in a high performance computing environment. In general legacy systems, performance metrics, as collected by a performance management agent, can only be collected via the use of general data packets traversing a subnet. In accordance with an embodiment, by configuring a SMA attribute to comprise the same performance metrics as collected by a PMA, a subnet manager, or another management component, can access the performance metrics in-band via the use of a subnet management packet.

System and method for supporting scalable representation of link stability and availability in a high performance computing environment. A method can provide at attribute at each node in a subnet, wherein the attribute provides a single location at each node for a subnet manager to query the stability and availability of each link connected to the queried node. The attribute can be populated and maintained by a subnet management agent residing at the node.