A fibre channel switch element and method for processing frames in a fibre channel network is provided. The switch element includes an address mapping cache that receives an incoming fibre channel frame in a receive and/or transmit segment, wherein the address mapping cache compares a D_ID of an incoming frame in the receive segment and/or a S_ID in the transmit segment; and if a FR_Header is received then a D_ID or S_ID is compared from a fibre channel header that follows the FR_Header; and if a compare fabric identifier flag is set, then the fabric identifier is compared. The address mapping cache may also be used for routing frames from one virtual fabric to another by comparing a VF_ID field to a Virtual fabric identifier in a VFT_Header.