Patent ID: 7443788

Claim:
A method for improving performance of a loop network, the loop network having a plurality of loops and a plurality of multi-ported devices, each port thereof connected to a different loop, the method comprising: selectively bypassing redundant ports on the loops by a first command means; bypassing a port of a device by a second command means in response to a fault; enabling all selectively bypassed redundant ports with a single Loop Port Enable All (LPEall) Fibre Channel Arbitrated Loop command to all ports using the first command means, without enabling the port bypassed in response to the fault, wherein the loop network is a Fibre Channel Arbitrated Loop (FC-AL) and the first command means provides a Fibre Channel Arbitrated Loop command; and selectively bypassing redundant ports on the loops with port accesses balanced across the loops by alternating bypassing first loop ports on every other device and second loop ports on remaining devices.