Patent ID: 9054949
Filing Date: 2015-06-09
Classification: H04L

Abstract:
1. A computer program product for managing zoning information for ports in a network and in communication with data forwarders, the computer program product comprising a non-transitory computer readable storage medium having computer readable program code embodied therein that executes to perform operations, the operations comprising: maintaining for each data forwarder a sequence number for zone distribution messages sent to the data forwarder; detecting a change to the ports in the network comprising at least one of an allocation or deallocation of at least one port in the network; incrementing the sequence number for each data forwarder in response to detecting the change; generating for each data forwarder a zone distribution message indicating the at least one port allocated and/or deallocated, port information indicating each port in the network that may communicate with each other port, and the sequence number for the data forwarder, wherein the data forwarder uses the sequence number to determine whether the zone distribution message was received out of order with respect to a last processed zone distribution message at the data forwarder; and transmitting the zone distribution message generated for each data forwarder to the data forwarder for which the zone distribution message was generated.