Managing arbitration in mixed link rate wide ports

A method of managing connections between an initiator and a plurality of devices, the method comprising:

• interconnecting an expander between the initiator and the plurality of target devices, wherein the expander includes a plurality of physical transceivers including a physical transceiver having a first link rate and a physical transceiver having a second link rate that is different than the first link rate;
• processing a connection request from an initiator for the first link rate;
• extracting a timer from the connection request;
• determining whether the requested first link rate is available;
• starting the timer when the link manager determines that the requested first link rate is unavailable;
• and
• issuing a response to the initiator to inform the initiator that the timer has started and that connection at the requested first link rate is delayed while the timer is running.

A data storage system for managing connections for a host system, the data storage system comprising:

• a plurality of target disk drives;
• and
• an expander operable to interconnect between the target disk drives and the host system, the expander comprising:
• a plurality of physical transceivers including a physical transceiver having a first link rate and a physical transceiver having a second link rate that is different than the first link rate;
• and
• a link manager communicatively coupled to the physical transceivers and operable to:
• process a connection request from an initiator for the first link rate;
• extract a timer from the connection request;
• determine whether the requested first link rate is available;
• start the timer when the link manager determines that the requested first link rate is unavailable;
• and
• issue a response to the host system to inform the host system that the timer has started and that connection at the requested first link rate is delayed while the timer is running.