Patent ID: 8850287

Claim:
Apparatus within a Fast Context Switch (FCS) enhanced Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) expander of a Zoned Portion of a Service Delivery Subsystem (ZPSDS), the apparatus comprising: a zone information memory for storing zone group identifiers for source physical links (PHY) of each of one or more established connections; and a Switch Address Frame (SAF) modification circuit coupled with the zone information memory and operable to detect receipt of an SAF on a source PHY from a SAS initiator device requesting a switch to another previously established connection, the SAF modification circuit further operable to retrieve a zone group identifier from the zone information memory and further operable to generate a modified SAF by replacing a zone group identifier in the received SAF with the retrieved zone group identifier and further operable to forward the modified SAF toward a SAS target device identified in the SAF.