KR20230079527A - SAS/SATA/NVMe Storage Expansion Unit for Edge Storage Systems - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to a device capable of extending a SAS/SATA/NVMe storage signal connection between modules through a backplane without cables for a system requiring a high-capacity storage device in an edge environment.
In particular, according to the present invention, a host module card and an expander module card are assembled and connected to a backplane so that SAS/SATA/NVMe can be expanded through interconnection between modules.
The host module card provides host interface of SAS/SATA/NVMe to the computing system, and the expander module card provides expansion interface of SAS/SATA/NVMe.
In the configuration of the present invention, one host module card is necessarily required, and SAS/SATA/NVMe storage can be expanded with a combination of the host module card and the expander module card. In addition, the capacity and quantity of SAS/SATA/NVMe storage can be expanded according to the computing system performance of the host module card.

Description

SAS/SATA/NVMe Storage Expansion Unit for Edge Storage Systems {SAS/SATA/NVMe Storage Expansion Unit for Edge Storage Systems}

The present invention relates to a device capable of extending a SAS/SATA/NVMe storage signal connection between modules through a backplane without cables for a system requiring a high-capacity storage device in an edge environment.

In particular, according to the present invention, a host module card and an expander module card are assembled and connected to a backplane so that SAS/SATA/NVMe can be expanded through interconnection between modules. Here, the host module card provides the host interface of SAS/SATA/NVMe to the computing system, and the expander module card provides the expansion interface of SAS/SATA/NVMe.

In the configuration of the present invention, one host module card is necessarily required, and SAS/SATA/NVMe storage can be expanded with a combination of the host module card and the expander module card. In addition, the capacity and quantity of SAS/SATA/NVMe storage can be expanded according to the computing system performance of the host module card.

Such technology can be applied to form a rugged structure in an edge system, particularly a miniaturized storage system operated outdoors.

Edge storage is a computing method that supports data flow acceleration by processing data generated from various terminal devices in real time at the site where the data is generated or at a short distance without sending it to a centralized data center.

Edge storage reduces network dependence and stably transmits and receives data as data is directly connected to the device or in a self-accessible area, and the physical distance between the device and data is short and only local data is processed, so operation and response are faster than those processed in the data center. This is possible, and it has the advantage of reducing data transmission load and security threats by processing most of the device data on its own and transmitting only necessary data to the data center.

The present invention relates to storage expansion in such edge storage. Storage expansion was not possible because existing edge storage is smaller than conventional storage in terms of environmental factors such as outdoor environments and space. In particular, the existing general storage method has a problem that the storage must be installed in one standard slot, which is described in the following problem.

In order to expand storage such as SAS/SATA/NVMe in general storage, a method of expanding storage such as SAS/SATA/NVMe by connecting a cable to an external connector of a SAS HBA or PCIe extension is mainly used.

This has spatial problems such as twisting of cables and mis-insertion of cables when constructing an edge storage system, and messy visual problems due to many cable connections.

Also, there is a problem that the installation position of "Host module card" or "Expander module card" is fixed.

This is not a problem in general storage, but since edge storage has many perceptual limitations and is used in a rugged environment such as an outdoor environment, limitations such as cable connection problems and module card position fixing may cause problems. can

The biggest feature of the present invention is that the storage can be expanded with a backplane without cables, and that the storage can be expanded in the edge storage environment by enabling operation even when various module cards are freely mounted rather than in a fixed position. is in

To this end, the backplane 300 was invented in the present invention. By applying the backplane to the edge storage in this way, it is a structure that extends SAS/SATA/NVMe from the edge storage system to the backplane, rather than connecting a SAS HBA or PCIe expansion external connector with a cable. It can solve the messy visual problem caused by many cables and visual problems.

Along with the backplane, in this patent, the Host module card 100 and the Expander module card 200 of the edge storage system were invented.

The host module card 100 is for connecting the main processor 101 of the edge storage system, and was invented as a structure that can expand SAS/SATA/NVMe wherever it is mounted on the backplane. The storage connection interface of the mail processor extends from the SAS/SATA/NVMe HBA card 102 and branches into a SAS/SATA/NVMe connector 104 and an internal SAS/SATA/NVMe storage 103. The branched SAS/SATA/NVMe connector connects to CONN #1 on the backplane.

Expander module card (200) is a card for expanding SAS/SATA/NVMe storage (201) and includes a SAS/SATA/NVMe expansion board (202), storage expansion signal input connector (204), and storage expansion signal output connector (203). It consists of The storage signal input through the storage expansion signal input connector is branched into a signal going to the backplane from the SAS/SATA/NVMe expansion board and a signal going to the internally expanded storage.

Each card configured in this way is connected to the backplane 300 to configure edge storage. On the backplane, the storage output connector is connected to the storage input connector on the next layer, and the signal from the storage output connector on the bottom is connected to the storage input connector on the top to form a circle-shaped data connection. In this way, it was invented so that all cards can be connected to any connector.

Here, the limitations of the present invention are that one or more host module cards must be installed in the edge storage system, and expansion devices must not leave empty spaces in the middle and must be connected to adjacent slots.

The main effect of the present invention is to enable a storage expansion function, which was difficult to utilize in the existing edge storage, to enable various storage applications.

The use of edge storage is gradually increasing in order to solve problems such as network traffic problems and data security caused by the centralization of current data. However, edge storage has different forms required for various application fields, but it has limitations that storage expansion is not free, so separate products are required for each, which increases production cost or maintenance cost. It was homework.

The edge storage expansion method of the present invention will be an important keyword to solve these problems. By using a backplane method instead of a cable method used in existing storage and a data connection by a circle structure, the storage can be freely expanded rather than the existing fixed storage expansion method, increasing the utilization of edge storage. As a result, it can be said that the ripple effect on the overall industrial field is large.

1 is an example of the configuration of a host module card used in the edge storage of the present invention. Looking at the configuration diagram, it consists of a CPU, the main processor of storage, a SAS/SATA/NVMe HBA card for branching storage signals from the CPU, and CONN#1 used for internal storage used for edge storage and external storage expansion. there is. Here, CONN#2 is configured in terms of hardware because there is no signal coming from outside, but the actual signal is not connected.
2 is an example of the configuration of an Expander module card used for storage expansion. Looking at the configuration diagram, it consists of a SAS/SATA/NVMe storage (201), a SAS/SATA/NVMe expansion board (202), a storage expansion signal input connector (204), and a storage expansion signal output connector (203).
3 is a configuration example of a backplane to which each card is connected. On the backplane, the storage output connector is connected to the storage input connector on the next layer, and the signal from the storage output connector on the bottom is connected to the storage input connector on the top to form a circle-shaped data connection. In this way, it was invented so that all cards can be connected to any connector. Although FIG. 3 is an example consisting of four layers, the number of layers can be expanded or reduced as needed.

An embodiment of the present invention is a capacity-oriented configuration (EX#1) and a performance-oriented configuration (EX#2) illustrated in FIG. 4 .

The following is a description of a preferred embodiment of the present invention in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings, and is one of several embodiments, and there may be other embodiments.

First, an example of a capacity-oriented configuration is composed of one host module card 100, three expander module cards 200, and a backplane module 300 to which four module cards can be attached. In the backplane where one host module card is mounted, Conn#1 (104) of the host module card is connected to the E_in connector (203) of the expander module right below. The connected storage data signal is connected to the internal storage 201 and the E_out connector 203 through the internal branch 202 as described above. This connected storage signal is connected to the E_in connector of the Expander module card directly below the backplane. By repeating this operation, the SAS/SATA/NVMe storages of the three expander module cards are connected to the CPU of the host module card, forming storage expansion.

The following is an example of performance-oriented. In this example, two Host module cards and two Expander module cards are installed. The two host module cards installed in this way operate independently of each other and can expand with the SAS/SATA/NVMe storage of the expander module card mounted right below. The advantage of this configuration is that the number of host module cards can be increased according to the required computing power of the storage, and the performance of the storage can be increased by installing an expander module card according to the increased host module card. However, the expander module card that can be controlled by one host module card has the disadvantage that only the card below and the cards connected to it can be used.

With this configuration, storage data signals of all slots are connected regardless of the position of the host module card, so free storage expansion is possible. In addition, the example of the present invention is an example of mounting four cards, but the number of cards that can be mounted can be increased or decreased as needed.

Host module card to control 100 edge arrays, with at least one installed per array
101 CPU used as edge storage main processor
102 SAS/SATA/NVMe HBA card for storage connectivity and management
103 internal storage
104 Connector for connection to the backplane
Expander module card for 200 storage expansion
201 Various SAS/SATA/NVMe storage devices used for storage expansion
202 SAS/SATA/NVMe Expander board to branch external storage control signals
203 External storage output connector for storage expansion
204 External storage input connector for control of the storage expansion module card
Backplane for 300 storage configuration

Claims (4)

For systems that require high-capacity storage devices in the edge environment, SAS/SATA/NVMe storage signal connection can be expanded between modules through the backplane without cables, but there are no restrictions on the location of each card. In the above 1
Host module card that branches to allow internal storage and external expansion while managing overall storage In the above 1
Expander module card that includes storage for storage expansion and diverges storage-related signals coming from the outside into internal SAS/SATA/NVMe storage and external connection signals for further expansion. In the above 1
A backplane designed to minimize positional restrictions while connecting the cards of 2 and 3 above and configured to enable storage expansion.

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