Brocade Communications Systems, Inc.

Jeffery Stai

David C Banks

Jieming Zhu

Vincent W Guan

Eric R Griffith

Ding Long Wu

A system and method for sending frames between a public device and a private device comprise a phantom device mapping, an address translation, a frame payload translation, and a CRC regeneration. The system and method assign a phantom AL_PA for the public device and establishes a phantom device mapping between the phantom AL_PA and the public device's Port_ID. With the phantom device mapping, the present invention directs all communication between the public device and the private loop device as if the communication were between a phantom device and the private device. Specifically, the system and method comprise a public-to-private address translation in one direction and a private-to-public address translation in the other direction. During the public-to-private address translation process, the source address of the frame is converted to a phantom AL_PA. The public-to-private address translation uses a Port_ID to phantom AL_PA mapping table and finds an entry where the Port_ID matches the source address. The public-to-private address translation replaces the source address of the frame with the phantom AL_PA of the matched entry, and the destination address with the AL_PA only of the destination device. The private-to-public address translation replaces the destination address of the frame with the Port_ID of the matched entry, and the source address with the fabric assigned address of the private device.

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Placentia, CA, United States of America

Jeffery Stai