Fibre channel network employing registered state change notifications with enhanced payload

A Fibre Channel (FC) fabric that comprises:

• a first FC switch configured to directly couple with at least one FC node device, and configured to maintain a database of local node device entries containing information about FC node devices directly coupled to the first FC switch;
• a second FC switch coupled to the first FC switch and configured to directly couple with at least one FC node device, wherein the second FC switch is configured to maintain a cache of remote node device entries containing information about FC node devices directly coupled to switches other than the second FC switch,
• wherein the first FC switch is configured to transmit state change messages to the second FC switch upon detecting a stage change in FC node devices directly coupled to the first FC switch,
• wherein the state change messages include a remote node device entry for the cache.

A Fibre Channel frame signal embodied in a carrier wave, comprising:

• a start of frame segment encoding a start-of-frame indicator;
• a content segment encoding:
• a Registered State Change Notification command code;
• and
• at least one device entry having one or more properties associated with a node device;
• and
• an end of frame segment encoding an end-of-frame indicator.

A Fibre Channel switch that comprises:

• a means for directing Fibre Channel frames between ports;
• and
• a name server configured to maintain a database of name server entries for node devices directly coupled to the switch, and configured to transmit registered state change notification messages to other switches after a node device state change is detected,
• wherein at least one of the state change messages includes at least one device entry with parameter values in a name server entry of a node device associated with the detected a state change.