Patent ID: 8140657

Claim:
A device, comprising: a fibre channel switch for connecting two or more fibre channel initiators to a target via a fibre channel fabric; an enterprise messaging exchange (eXM) module including an input/output (IO) table, the eXM module being configured to (i) translate a frame address of an initiator originated frame within a fibre channel exchange between one of the initiators and the target; (ii) process the originated frame; (iii) create a phantom port to N_port mapping for the fibre channel exchange; and (iv) create a new entry within the IO table corresponding to the fibre channel exchange, wherein a corresponding frame originating at the target is forwarded to the one initiator via the eXM module, the eXM module (i) associating the corresponding frame with the fibre channel exchange, (ii) replacing a domain identification (DID) of the corresponding frame with a common DID associated with the two or more fibre channel initiators.