Patent ID: 7742484

Claim:
A Fibre Channel network comprising: a first edge Fibre Channel fabric; a second edge Fibre Channel fabric; a backbone Fibre Channel fabric; a first Fibre Channel routing device physically connected to both said first edge fabric and said backbone fabric, said first Fibre Channel routing device operating to not merge said first edge fabric and said backbone fabric when both are physically connected to said first Fibre Channel routing device; and a second Fibre Channel routing device physically connected to both said second edge fabric and said backbone fabric, said second Fibre Channel routing device operating to not merge said second edge fabric and said backbone fabric when both are physically connected to said second Fibre Channel routing device; wherein said first and second Fibre Channel routing devices allow messages to be exchanged between devices connected to the first edge Fibre Channel fabric and devices connected to the second edge Fibre Channel fabric across the backbone Fibre Channel fabric.