Patent ID: 7848320

Claim:
A method comprising: providing a storage area network that includes a first switch that uses a first address format, wherein the first address format comprises a constant and a one-digit hexadecimal port number, wherein the constant comprises a number K, wherein the port number of the first address format comprises a number N, and wherein the number N is between 0 and 15; transforming switches in the storage area network to accommodate a second switch that uses a second address format different from the first address format, wherein the transforming includes: logically disconnecting from a first port of the first switch addressed by a predetermined address of the first address format; connecting to a second port of the first switch addressed by the predetermined address if the second address format is used; and accessing the second port using the predetermined address in the second address format without using the first address format, wherein accessing the second port comprises using the second address format having a two-digit hexadecimal port number, and wherein the port number of the second address format comprises a number N+(16*K); and repeating the method for every switch in an access path of the first switch.