US 7,499,410 B2
Fibre channel switch that enables end devices in different fabrics to communicate with one another while retaining their unique fibre channel domain—IDs
Dinesh G. Dutt, Sunnyvale, Calif. (US); Thomas Edsall, Cupertino, Calif. (US); Ankur Jain, San Jose, Calif. (US); Silvano Gai, San Jose, Calif. (US); Subrata Banerjee, San Ramon, Calif. (US); Davide Bergamasco, Mountain View, Calif. (US); Bruno Raimondo, Mountain View, Calif. (US); and Rajeev Bhardwaj, Sunnyvale, Calif. (US)
Assigned to Cisco Technology, Inc., San Jose, Calif. (US)
Filed on Jun. 26, 2003, as Appl. No. 10/609,442.
Application 10/609442 is a continuation in part of application No. 10/034160, filed on Dec. 26, 2001.
Prior Publication US 2005/0036499 A1, Feb. 17, 2005
Int. Cl. H04L 12/28 (2006.01); H04L 12/56 (2006.01)
U.S. Cl. 370—254  [370/392; 370/401; 709/242] 26 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. An apparatus, comprising:
a Switch configured to couple a first fabric having a first set of end devices including a first device and a second fabric having a second set of end devices including a second device, each of the first set of end devices and the second set of end devices having a unique Domain_ID address respectively, the Switch configured to enable communication between the first set of end devices in the first fabric with the second set of end devices associated with the second fabric while maintaining the unique Domain_ID addresses of the first set of end devices and the second set of end devices,
wherein the first fabric and the second fabric are configured to be separate physical fabrics; and
the Switch is a Border Switch that is configured to be part of both the first fabric and the second fabric, the Border Switch configured to send frames of information including Fabric Shortest Path First (FSPF) frames between the first fabric and the second fabric to enable communication between members of the first set of end devices and the second set of end devices, wherein Domain_ID address of the first device is announced to the second set of end devices if the second device resides in the same inter-VSAN zone as the first device or the second set of end devices reside in a transit VSAN.