Cisco Assigned Ten Patents

Compute and storage provisioning in cloud environment
Cisco Technology, Inc., San Jose, CA, has been assigned a patent (9,229,749) developed by Chandrasekaran, Varagur, Fremont, CA, for a “compute and storage provisioning in a cloud environment.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”In one embodiment, a method includes receiving at a network device, resource information comprising attributes for compute and storage resources in a network, identifying a need for provisioning a virtual element, and selecting one of the compute and storage resources for use in provisioning the virtual element. Selection of the compute or storage resource includes analyzing the resource information for the compute resources and the storage resources in the network. An apparatus is also disclosed.“

The patent application was filed on October 31, 2011 (13/317,883).

Storage area network
Cisco Technology, Inc., San Jose, CA, has been assigned a patent (9,213,612) developed by Candelaria, James, Branchburg, NJ, for a “method and system for a storage area network.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”In a system and method for a storage area network, (SAN), a first controller receives a write request for a SAN and communicates with a first nested storage array module, (NSAM), the first NSAM manages storage of data onto a shelf and presents the shelf as a logical unit, a buffer stores a portion of a write request from the first controller and aggregates data from the write request for the shelf, from a shelf with a second NSAM, the second NSAM provides a portion of data from the buffer to a third NSAM, the third NSAM manages storage of the portion of data from the buffer to a physical storage unit, and a second controller coupled to the first controller handles requests for the SAN in response to a failure of the first controller.“

The patent application was filed on September 29, 2009 (13/121,605).

In-band LUN provisioning in data center network environment
Cisco Technology, Inc., San Jose, CA, has been assigned a patent (9,207,882) developed by Rosset, Sebastien T., Sunnyvale, CA, Uchino, Brian Y., Foster City, CA, and Baddela, Sesidhar, Cupertino, CA, for a “system and method for in-band LUN provisioning in a data center network environment.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”A method is provided in one example embodiment and includes instantiating a virtual adapter on a network device connected to a storage array, the virtual adapter capable of communicating with the storage array, determining storage configuration properties for the network device, and provisioning a portion of the storage array to the network device in accordance with the determined storage configuration properties. The method may further comprise associating the network device with a service profile, where the storage configuration properties are specified in the service profile. Still further, the method may comprise configuring the network device in accordance with the associated service profile, where the instantiating is also performed in accordance with the associated service profile.“

The patent application was filed on December 18, 2012 (13/718,425).

Scaling number of virtual links in fiber channel forwarder device
Cisco Technology, Inc., San Jose, CA, has been assigned a patent (9,191,316) developed by Majumdar, Saugat, San Jose, CA, Pitta, Srinivas, Cupertino, CA, Andreello, Giuseppe, Aubonne, Switzerland, and Ghosh, Kalyan Kumar, Santa Clara, CA, for a “scaling number of virtual links in a fiber channel forwarder device.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”At a network device that forwards packets between compute devices and virtual storage area networks using Fiber Channel over Ethernet techniques, data is stored for a virtual fabric port of the network device identifying each of a plurality of virtual storage area networks. For each virtual storage area network, data is stored identifying each of a plurality of compute devices that are logged into the virtual storage area network via the network device. The network device forwards packets sent to the virtual fabric port of the network device from the plurality of compute devices to corresponding ones of the plurality of virtual storage area networks.“

The patent application was filed on August 18, 2014 (14/461,960).

Increasing IP6 version host table scalability
in top of rack switches for data center deployments
Cisco Technology, Inc., San Jose, CA, has been assigned a patent (9,183,322) developed by Kapadia, Shyam, Santa Clara, CA, Zhang, Ming, San Jose, CA, Shah, Nilesh, Fremont, CA, and Subagio, Putu Harry, Cupertino, CA, for a “increasing internet protocol version 6 host table scalability in top of rack switches for data center deployments.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”Techniques are provided for optimizing storage of address information in switch device databases. A control packet is received from a source host. An address associated with a host is determined. The address comprises a first and second address component. The first address component is stored in a first database and is mapped to an index value that is stored in the first database. The index value is also stored in a second database along with the second address component. The first database may also be examined to determine whether the first address component is stored in the first database. If the first address component is stored in the first database, the index value mapped to the first address component is retrieved. The second database is examined to determine whether the index value and the second address component are stored in the second database.“

The patent application was filed on December 4, 2012 (13/693,090).

Data processing using data compression, linked lists and de-duplication techniques
Cisco Technology, Inc., San Jose, CA, has been assigned a patent (9,141,554) developed by Candelaria, James, Branchburg, NJ, for a “methods and apparatus for data processing using data compression, linked lists and de-duplication techniques.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”Data processing methods and apparatus for efficiently storing and retrieving data, e.g., blocks of data, to and from memory. The data processing including, e.g., techniques such as using linked lists and/or tables for tracking duplicate data blocks received for storage, the use of lossless data compression, and de-duplication based on comparing hash values, compressed data block sizes, and/or bit by bit comparisons of the block of data to be stored and previously stored blocks of data.“

The patent application was filed on January 18, 2013 (13/745,503).

Secure escrow and recovery of media device content keys
Cisco Technology, Inc., San Jose, CA, has been assigned a patent (9,137,480) developed by Schlarb, John M., Duluth, GA, and Bacon, Kinney C., Lawrenceville, GA, for a “secure escrow and recovery of media device content keys.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”An embodiment of a method for secure escrow and recovery of media device content keys includes generating, with a first processor of a media device, an escrow key for encrypting a plurality of content keys, the content keys for encrypting instances of media content. The first processor of the media device encrypts the escrow key with a public key of a key clearinghouse. The escrow key, encrypted with the public key of the key clearinghouse, is stored in a storage location outside of the first processor of the media device.“

The patent application was filed on June 30, 2006 (11/428,367).

Encryption key management for SAN devices
Cisco Technology, Inc., San Jose, CA, has been assigned a patent (9,071,589) developed by Patnala, Praveen, Santa Clara, CA, Parthasarathy, Anand, Fremont, CA, and Deshmukh, Makarand, Cupertino, CA, for a “encryption key management for storage area network devices.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”An encryption key management system is provided for storage area network devices. A create key request is received at a storage area network switch. The key is created at the storage area network switch and the created key request is transmitted to a key management center. The key object is stored in the key management center and includes a unique identifier, an encrypted key, a wrapper unique identifier, and a key entity. The encrypted key can later be decrypted to generate a decrypted key. The encrypted key is decrypted using keying material accessed using the wrapper unique identifier that identifies another key object.“

The patent application was filed on April 2, 2008 (12/061,600).

Mirroring mechanisms for SANs and network based virtualization
Cisco Technology, Inc., San Jose, CA, has been assigned a patent (9,009,427) developed by Sharma, Samar, Gai, Silvano, San Jose, CA, Dutt, Dinesh, Sunnyvale, CA, Kumar, Sanjaya, Fremont, CA, and Mahajan, Umesh, Cupertino, CA, for a “mirroring mechanisms for storage area networks and network based virtualization.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”A technique is provided for implementing online mirroring of a volume in a storage area network. A first instance of the volume is instantiated at a first port of the fiber channel fabric for enabling I/O operations to be performed at the volume. One or more mirroring procedures may be performed at the volume. In at least one implementation, the first port is able to perform first I/O operations at the volume concurrently while the mirroring procedures are being performed at the first volume. In one implementation, the mirroring procedures may be implemented at a fabric switch of the storage area network. Additionally, in at least one implementation, multiple hosts may be provided with concurrent access to the volume during the mirroring operations without serializing the access to the volume.“

The patent application was filed on February 2, 2009 (12/364,416).

Distribution of SAN encryption keys across data centers
Cisco Technology, Inc., San Jose, CA, has been assigned a patent (8,989,388) developed by Patnala, Praveen, Santa Clara, CA, Parthasarathy, Anand, Fremont, CA, Deshmukh, Makarand, Cupertino, CA, and Kondamuri, Chandra Sekhar, Sunnyvale, CA, for a “distribution of storage area network encryption keys across data centers.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”Efficient mechanisms are provided for transferring key objects associated with disk logical unit numbers and tape cartridges from one data center to another data center. A request is received to transfer a source data center key object from a source data center to a destination data center. The source data center key object corresponds to a data block, such as a disk logical unit number, LUN) or a tape cartridge, maintained in a storage area network, SAN) and includes a unique identifier, an encrypted key, and a wrapper unique identifier. The encrypted key is decrypted using a source data center key hierarchy. Key information is transmitted from the source data center to the destination data center. A destination data center key object is generated using a destination data center key hierarchy.“

The patent application was filed on April 2, 2008 (12/061,597).