Patent ID: 8018936

Claim:
A routing device, comprising: a switch configured to direct a frame from a first fabric to a second fabric, the frame comprising a source ID corresponding to a first physical port address of a first physical device and a destination ID corresponding to a first proxy address of a first proxy device, the first physical port address and the first proxy address being first fabric addresses; and routing logic configured to translate the destination ID to a second physical port address of a second physical device and the source ID to a second proxy address of a second proxy device, the second physical port address and the second proxy address being second fabric addresses; wherein the frame is a link service frame comprising a port address in a payload and said routing logic further identifies the frame as needing software processing by examining a header and a command code in the frame, the software processing comprising translating the port address in the payload; wherein the routing logic further identifies a second frame received by the routing device as a link services request, a source ID of the second frame matching the first proxy address and the routing logic further stores within a memory the source ID and the originator exchange ID of the second frame and directs the second frame to the first fabric; and wherein the routing logic further identifies a third frame received by the routing device as a link services reply and the routing logic further translates a port address within a data payload of the third frame if the destination ID and the originator exchange ID within the third frame respectively match the stored source ID and stored originator exchange ID.