Method and system of centralized control and management for fiber channel over Ethernet networks

A first fiber channel over Ethernet (FCoE) data forwarder (FDF), comprising:

• a memory coupled to a processor, wherein the memory comprises instructions that cause the processor to:
• provide topology information to an FCoE controller and manager (FCM) by providing to the FCM the name of a second FDF directly connected to the first FDF but not directly connected to the FCM, and by forwarding to the FCM adjacency information from the second FDF, wherein the adjacency information comprises any third FDFs directly connected to the second FDF but not directly connected to the first FDF and not directly connected to the FCM,
• receive a first base forwarding table for the first FDF and a second base forwarding table for the second FDF, wherein the second base forwarding table is different than the first base forwarding table, and wherein the first base forwarding table and the base second forwarding table were created by the FCM using the topology information;
• and
• forwarding the second base forwarding table to the second FDF,
• wherein the first FDF and the second FDF do not comprise any control plane functions, and wherein the FCM does not distribute the topology information to the first FDF and does not distribute the topology information to the second FDF.