Methods, devices and systems for improved zone merge operations are
disclosed. Two connected switches are arbitrated as an initiator and a
receiver. The merge operation is initiated only by the initiator on an
initiator/receiver inter-switch link. The initiator may initiate a merge
request and the receiver may perform the computation of the difference
between the old and the new zone. Either the whole configuration or only
the differences are communicated between the switches. The merges may be
done on a connected switch basis, not on a connected port basis. Only the
principle ports in the principle inter-switch-link perform the merge
operation. All the remaining ports, i.e. the non-principle ports, adopt
the merge result of the principle ports. The zone information may also be
cached on each switch such that merge calculations need not be performed
again when a merge operation with the same configuration occurs in the
future.