This American National Standard for FC-SW-5 describes the operation and interaction of Fibre Channel Switches. This standard includes: a) E_Port Operation and Fabric Configuration; b) Path selection (FSPF); c) Bridge Port (B_Port) Operation; d) Distributed server interaction and communication; e) Exchange of information between Switches to support zoning; f) Distribution of Event Notifications between Switches; g) Virtual Fabrics Switch Support; h) Enhanced Commit Service; i) Virtual Channels.