Patent ID: 7965843

Claim:
A method for processing frames in a fibre channel network having a first network entity and a second network entity, the method comprising: receiving a first frame at the first network entity from the second network entity in the fibre channel network, wherein the first frame is associated with a fabric login (FLOGI) or port login (PLOGI) message; identifying a security enable parameter in the first frame, wherein the security enable parameter is used by the second network entity, when the second network entity is added to the fibre channel network, to determine if the first network entity has authentication capability or supports other security functions; transmitting an acknowledgment to the second network entity that the first network entity has authentication capability or supports other security functions, the acknowledgment including algorithm information and a salt parameter; receiving a second frame at the first network entity from the second network entity; identifying a security control indicator in the second frame from the second network entity, wherein the security control indicator is used to determine if the second frame is encrypted or authenticated; determining at the first network entity that a security association identifier associated with the second frame corresponds to an entry in a security database; decrypting a first portion of the second frame by using algorithm information contained in the entry in the security database.