Patent ID: 8019895

Claim:
A method, comprising: transmitting network traffic encoded in a first protocol across a first communications link, wherein the first protocol allows a first plurality of simultaneous logical connections; receiving the transmitted network traffic at a first interface between the first communications link and a second communications link; encapsulating the received network traffic within frames at the first interface, wherein the frames are generated in accordance with a second protocol, and wherein the second protocol does not allow any plurality of simultaneous logical connections that are allowed by the first protocol; transmitting the frames from the first interface to a second interface across the second communications link; receiving the frames and then generating from the frames unencapsulated network traffic at the second interface, wherein the second interface is between the second communications link and a third communications link; and routing the unencapsulated network traffic to a selected logical connection of a second plurality of simultaneous logical connections across the third communications link, wherein transmission across the third communications link is in the first protocol, wherein the first protocol is a serial attached small computer system interface (SAS) protocol, wherein the second protocol is a fibre channel protocol, wherein when the first interface and the second interface perform port login to each other, the first and the second interfaces designate a fibre channel type field as a vendor unique type and designate a parameter field via a unique identifier to indicate that the first interface and the second interface are SAS extenders.