Patent ID: 7430203

Claim:
A Fibre Channel device for use in a Fibre Channel fabric, the fabric coupling a plurality of external data devices, the fabric configured into at least two zones, where external data devices are allowed to exchange data packets only with external data devices in the same zone, the Fibre Channel device enforcing the at least two zones in hardware, the Fibre Channel device comprising: a receiving port for coupling to the fabric and receiving data packets; a first transmitting port for coupling to the fabric and transmitting data packets; a second transmitting port for coupling to an external data packet processing device; and device logic connecting said receiving port and said first and second transmitting ports, wherein said device logic includes: zoning data storage for storing configuration data indicative of the zone configuration of the fabric; a comparison circuit connected to said zoning data storage for comparing at least a portion of the initial fields of a received data packet with said stored configuration data and providing an output; and an action circuit connected to said comparison circuit and utilizing said comparison circuit output to determine an action to be performed on the received data packet, wherein the action determined by said action circuit is to provide a data packet to said second transmitting port for transmission of the received data packet to the external data packet processing device.