Patent ID: 7542676

Claim:
A method for communication between a host system operationally coupled to a transparent host port of a Fibre Channel switch element and a target device that is operationally coupled to a proprietary switch fabric, comprising: collecting world wide port number (“WWPN”) information regarding a host bus adapter for the host system and disabling the transparent host port after the WWPN information is collected; initiating a fabric login (FLOGI) process after the transparent host port is disabled, wherein the Fibre Channel switch element initiates the FLOGI process on behalf of the host system and a transparent fabric port of the Fibre Channel switch element records a virtual N_Port identifier; and mapping a transparent fabric port of the Fibre Channel switch element to a transparent host port of the Fibre Channel switch element such that the host system communicates with the target device while the Fibre Channel switch element is transparent to the proprietary switch fabric.