Patent ID: 6980525

Claim:
In a system comprising a first fabric and a plurality of devices coupled to the first fabric by Fibre Channel connections, a method for logically organizing the devices comprising: accessing a definition of a first configuration including at least one zone, each zone including at least one device as a member of the zone; and responsive to the definition of the first configuration, restricting communications between the devices coupled to the first fabric, wherein the step of restricting communications between the devices includes blocking communications from a first device to a second device if the first and second devices are not members of a common zone and wherein the step of blocking communications from a first device to a second device includes: accessing a bit in a bitmap, wherein the bit in the bitmap indicates whether the first device and the second device are members of a common zone; and blocking communications from the first device to the second device if the bit indicates that the first device and the second device are not members of a common zone.