Patent ID: 8539135

Claim:
A Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) expander, comprising: a plurality of ports; a centralized route lookup table, the centralized route lookup table configured for providing a central resource for routing information for the plurality of ports; and a plurality of connection history caches (CHCs), each of the plurality of CHCs being configured as an integrated hardware component at one particular port of the plurality of ports, each of the plurality of CHCs configured for storing at least one successfully established connection record; wherein upon receiving a connection request at a particular port of the plurality of ports, the particular port is configured for: determining whether a matching connection record for the connection request is stored in the CHC associated with the particular port; establishing a connection in response to the connection request based on the matching connection record when the matching connection record is stored in the CHC associated with the particular port; and establishing the connection in response to the connection request utilizing the centralized route lookup table when the matching connection record is not stored in the CHC associated with the particular port.