Patent attributes
Methods and apparatus for providing distance extension and other transport functions such as error monitoring, provisioning, and link/service management in a fiber channel path are disclosed. According to one aspect of the present invention, a transport node includes a processing arrangement and an output interface. The processing arrangement creates a first ordered set that includes information associated with an ability for the transport node to receive a first fiber channel frame, and inserts the first ordered set between a second ordered set and a third ordered set of a fiber channel stream. The output interface transmits the fiber channel stream, which includes the information regarding whether the transport node is capable of receiving the first fiber channel frame.
