Abstract: A method, system or switch device, the switch device being one of a ported and a non-ported switch device, either of which including a housing containing an ASIC providing a switching system within the switch device, the housing further including a plurality of extender ports communicating with the ASIC and being connectable to themselves either in loopback fashion or to one or more ported or non-ported switch devices, whereby the extender ports operate on a discrete protocol from standard switch ports. The ported switch device further includes a plurality of standard ports connectable to one or more external computer network devices. A switch device hereof is adapted to send and/or receive an identification communication, the identification communication adapted to be indicative of the health of a switch device or a connecting link in a switch system.

Abstract: A flexible architecture for embedded firmware of a multiple protocol switch can be implemented on a variety of hardware platforms. Hardware components of a SAN switch are embodied as cooperative modules (e.g., switch modules, port modules, service modules, etc.) with one or more processors in each module. Likewise, firmware components of a SAN switch can be assigned at initialization and/or run time across a variety of processors in any of these modules. The processors and firmware components can communicate via a messaging mechanism that is substantially independent of the underlying communication medium or the module in which a given processor resides. In the manner, firmware components can be reassigned (e.g., in a failover condition), added or removed without substantial disruption to the operation of the SAN.