Methods and systems for routing frames are provided. A system includes an initiator operationally coupled to a first switch that is coupled to a second switch. The first switch includes a plurality of ports for sending and receiving frames and includes a routing table that identifies a port identifier steering table based on an area field of a frame header of a frame received by the first switch. The first switch also includes a plurality of port identifier tables, where each port identifier table is associated with a unique area field and identifies a same port of the first switch for a plurality of area fields. The second switch stores an area steering table with port identification information associated with an area field of a frame header of a frame received by the second switch and a same port of the second switch is assigned to multiple area fields.