Patent ID: 8625597

Claim:
A method for forwarding Fibre Channel Initialization Protocol (FIP) and Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) frames with a FCoE device interconnection apparatus (FIA) from a source FCoE device to a destination FCoE device, the method comprising: receiving the FIP frame from the source FCoE device by the FIA, the FIP frame including destination Ethernet MAC address and source Ethernet MAC addresses, the FIA being capable of substituting destination and source Ethernet MAC addresses, forwarding the received FIP frame to a FCoE device interconnection apparatus controller (FIAC) over an Ethernet link, whereby the FIAC processes the FIP Frame and the FIAC returns a FIP link service accept (LS_ACC) or a FIP link service reject (LS_RJT) frame, receiving the FCoE frame by the FIA from the source FCoE device, the FCoE frame including destination Ethernet MAC address and source Ethernet MAC addresses, replacing the destination Ethernet MAC address and source Ethernet MAC addresses of the received FCoE frame and maintaining the contents of the encapsulated Fibre Channel Frame within the received FCoE frame, and forwarding the received FCoE frame with the replaced destination Ethernet MAC address and the replaced source Ethernet MAC address to the destination FCoE device.