Patent ID: 7584319

Claim:
A method of connection management in networked devices, said method comprising: routing data between said input and said output by way of an expander connection router arranged between said input and said output; arbitrating said routing of said data by way of an expander connection manager operatively coupled to said expander connection router and arranged between said input and said output; wherein said arbitrating step further includes (a) upon a state machine being within an arbitration state, determining whether all connection request PHYs are crossbar connected, (b) upon any of said connection request PHYs being crossbar connected, determining a highest arbitration priority PHY, (c) determining whether said highest arbitration priority PHY is part of a port associate map and identifying a request connection rate, (d) determining whether said request connection rate is supported, and (e) determining an arbitration result based at least upon whether said request connection rate is support and whether a target PHY is available.