Brocade Communications Systems, Inc.

James Hu

Sundar Poudyal

Yi Lin

Eric Andre Warmenhoven

Methods, devices and systems for improved zone merge operations are disclosed. Two connected switches are arbitrated as an initiator and a receiver. The merge operation is initiated only by the initiator on an initiator/receiver inter-switch link. The initiator may initiate a merge request and the receiver may perform the computation of the difference between the old and the new zone. Either the whole configuration or only the differences are communicated between the switches. The merges may be done on a connected switch basis, not on a connected port basis. Only the principle ports in the principle inter-switch-link perform the merge operation. All the remaining ports, i.e. the non-principle ports, adopt the merge result of the principle ports. The zone information may also be cached on each switch such that merge calculations need not be performed again when a merge operation with the same configuration occurs in the future.

Methods, devices and systems with improved zone merge operation by initiator selection

Methods, devices and systems for improved zone merge operations are disclosed. Two connected switches are arbitrated as an initiator and a receiver. The merge operation is initiated only by the initiator on an initiator/receiver inter-switch link. The initiator may initiate a merge request and the receiver may perform the computation of the difference between the old and the new zone. Either the whole configuration or only the differences are communicated between the switches. The merges may be done on a connected switch basis, not on a connected port basis. Only the principal ports in the principal inter-switch-link perform the merge operation. All the remaining ports, i.e. the non-principal ports, adopt the merge result of the principal ports. The zone information may also be cached on each switch such that merge calculations need not be performed again when a merge operation with the same configuration occurs in the future.

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Fremont, CA, United States of America

James Hu