ARBITRATION SUSPENSION IN A SAS DOMAIN

Systems and methods presented herein provide for managing connections in a SAS domain comprising at least first and second expanders. The first expander detects a failure of the initiator and indicates a change in the SAS domain to the second expander. The second expander detects an increase in arbitration wait time for a connection between the initiator and the target device, determines a race condition exists in the second expander, denies the connection between the initiator and the target device, directs the target device to wait for another connection, performs a discovery of the domain based on the discovery request from the first expander, and prevents a subsequent connection by the target device to the initiator after discovery completes.