Patent ID: 6870814

Claim:
A node device in a system area network (SAN) comprising: a first port, coupled to a first node, with the first port including a receiver for receiving data from the first node and a transmitter for transmitting data to the first node; a second port, coupled to a second node, with the second port including a receiver for receiving data from the second node and a transmitter for transmitting data to the second node; and control logic coupled to both the first and second ports, and operable for detecting an exception at the receiver of either of the first and second ports and for generating a this link bad (TLB) command to be transmitted by one of the first and second ports that detected the exception and an other link bad (OLB) command to be transmitted from the other of the first and second ports that did not detect the exception, passing an OLB command received by the receiver at the first port to the second port for transmission by the transmitter at the second port; converting a TLB command received by the receiver at the first port to an OLB command and passing the OLB command to the second port for transmission by the transmitter at the second port.