Patent ID: 7809852

Claim:
A method comprising: distributing a plurality of interleaved frames destined for a plurality of destination devices coupled to an arbitrated loop among a plurality of buffers, wherein each frame is designated for one of the plurality of destination devices on the arbitrated loop and each frame designated for one of the plurality of destination devices is queued in a buffer designated for that destination device; and conveying the queued frames from the plurality of buffers in a non-interleaved order; wherein said conveying the queued frames from the plurality of buffers in a non-interleaved order comprises: selecting a first buffer of the plurality of buffers as a current buffer; and repeating in an iterative fashion: if the current buffer includes a first one or more queued frames destined for a first device of the plurality of destination devices, wherein the first device is designated for the current buffer, conveying the first one or more queued frames from the current buffer; and selecting a next buffer of the plurality of buffers as the current buffer.