Fibre Channel hubs provide a reliable high-speed single-point solution between servers, clients and storage subsystems in a Fibre Channel-Arbitrated Loop (FC-AL) environment. Arbitrated loops originally connected transmit and receive interfaces between multiple nodes creating an extended ring topology, similar to early Token Ring implementations. Arbitrated Loop hubs provide greater control and reliability by employing bypass circuitry at each port to keep dysfunctional nodes from disrupting loop traffic. Since one of the Arbitrated Loop node addresses can be reserved for attachment to a Fibre Channel switch, a loop can participate in a broader network or a fabric built with multiple switches and hubs. The combination of Arbitrated Loop hubs and switches provides flexibility in allocating bandwidth and designing storage network segmentation.