Patent ID: 8798091

Claim:
A process for establishing one or more concurrent data transfers between Fibre Channel nodes comprising the steps: receiving Fibre Channel frames that are destined for a node coupled to a Fibre Channel port on a switching circuit, the Fibre Channel frames being received from a second switching circuit on a multiplexed bus; receiving a request in the switching circuit coupled to the Fibre Channel port upon which a source node is resident and using an address to determine from a routing table if a destination node is resident upon the Fibre Channel port, wherein said request, from the source node, requests a start of a data transfer with the destination node, said request being in a form of a Fibre Channel message including the address which identifies the destination node with which data is to be exchanged; if said destination node is not resident on said Fibre Channel port, using a control channel on the multiplexed bus having data transfer channels and control channels to circulate said request and address to other switching circuits that include other Fibre Channel ports; and generating, in the switching circuit coupled to the Fibre Channel port upon which said destination node is resident, a grant message identifying the Fibre Channel port upon which said destination node is present by inclusion of a identification code of the switching circuit coupled to the Fibre Channel port on which said destination node is present in said grant message.