Patent ID: 7843916

Claim:
A method comprising: providing a Switch for use in a Switching Fabric, the provided Switch including a port configured to receive a command frame over the Switching Fabric, the frame identifying: a source device in the switching Fabric; a destination device in the Switching Fabric; a command; and a read/write flag which indicates if the source device intends to exercise write access to the destination device; and the provided Switch further including a processor, coupled to the port, the processor configured to: ascertain the status of the read/write flag in the frame; trap the frame and prevent it from reaching the identified destination storage device in the switching Fabric if the source and the destination devices identified in the frame belong to a read-only zone and the status of the flag is set to write; and send a Write Protect message to the source device if the frame is trapped, wherein the trapping the frame and sending the Write Protect message to the source device are performed at least in part to implement the read-only zone by preventing the source device from becoming stalled waiting for a response from the destination device.