Patent ID: 7573870

Claim:
A method for prioritizing frames, via a transmit prioritizer, for transmission from a local node according to frame type, comprising: determining if a remote node is open; if the remote node is open, then determining if there are contexts for the remote node in which the contexts are arranged in a plurality of queues, one queue included in the plurality of queues being both a response queue and a transfer ready queue; if no contexts reside on the queues for the remote node, then examining an on-chip context cache to determine a context for the remote node when the remote node is a current remote node of a current loop, thereby promoting saving of a current loop tenancy; if there are contexts in the on-chip context cache for the remote node, then retrieving and queuing cached context for the remote node; determining if there is context on a data queue for the remote node; if there is context on the data queue for the remote node, then prioritizing context on the data queue for the lowest direct memory access latency for the remote node; and prioritizing an earliest queued context for the remote node with the highest weight via equation: priority value=A*priority type+B*time of entry, wherein A and B are at least one of: fixed constants; and variables, said fixed constants and variables being configured for being established via at least one of: software, an external device, and a user to provide a weighing factor, wherein the remote node is a device on a Fibre Channel Arbitration Loop.