Patent ID: 7352740

Claim:
A Fibre Channel device for use in a Fibre Channel fabric, the fabric coupling a plurality of external devices, the fabric configured into at least two zones, where the external devices are allowed to exchange data packets only with external devices in the same zone, the Fibre Channel device enforcing the zones in hardware, the Fibre Channel device comprising: a receiving port for coupling to the fabric and receiving data packets; a transmitting port for coupling to the fabric and transmitting data packets; and device logic connecting said receiving port and said transmitting port, wherein said device logic includes: zoning data storage for storing configuration data indicative of the zone configuration of the fabric, including logical unit numbers (LUNs) and extents within such LUNs of the external devices allowed to exchange data packets; a LUN and block fields comparison circuit connected to said zoning data storage for comparing the LUN and block fields of a received data packet with said stored configuration data and providing an output; and an action circuit connected to said LUN and block fields comparison circuit and utilizing said LUN and block fields comparison circuit output to determine an action to be performed on the received data packet.