Fibre Channel

What is Fibre Channel?

A high-speed transmission technology used as a
peripheral channel or network backbone.
It is a 100MB/sec, full-duplex, serial, data
communication technology.
It supports several common transport protocols
like Internet Protocol (IP) and SCSI.
It operates over copper and fiber optic cables at
distances of up to 10 Kilometers.
It is supported by many suppliers like Compaq,
Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Seagate, and Sun
Microsystems.
Standards for Fibre Channel
The T11 Committee of NCIT, a U.S. standards-
development organization under the ANSI
(American National Standards Institute) meets 6
times a year to develop Fibre Channel
standards.
Current standards:
Some examples of current standards.
Performance from 266 megabits/second to over
4 gigabits/second.
Support for distances of up to 10Km.
High-bandwidth utilization with distance
insensitivity.
Support for multiple cost/performance levels,
from small systems to super computers.
Ability to carry multiple existing interface
command sets, including Internet Protocol (IP),
SCSI, IPI, and audio and video.
Fibre Channel Architecture
Fibre Channel transfers digital data
between sources and users of
information.
This digital data represents different
types of information like programs, files,
graphics, videos and sound.
Each having its own structure, protocol,
connectivity, measures of performance
and reliability requirements.

Network Connection Example
Printer Server
Storage
Device
Computer/
Workstation
Computer/
Workstation
Fabric Ports
Node Ports
Node Ports
Node Ports
Node Ports
Network connection (continued):
Network Connections are established between
the node ports (N_Ports), that are in computers,
servers, storage devices, and printers, and the
fabric ports (F_Ports), that are on the periphery
of the Fibre Channel Fabric.
The Fibre Channel Architecture specifies in
detail the link Characteristics and protocol used
between the node ports and the fabric ports.
The Fibre Channel can interconnect more than
16 million node ports in a single address.
Fibre Channel Layers
Five layers FC-0, FC-1, FC-2, FC-3, and FC-4.
Define the physical media, transmission rates,
encoding scheme, framing protocol, flow control,
common services, and the upper level interfaces.
FC-0, FC-1, and FC-2 - define how Fibre
Channel ports interact with other ports.
They are refereed to as the Fibre Channel
Physical levels (PC-PH Levels).
FC-3, and FC-4 - define how Fibre Channel ports
interact with applications in host systems.
FC-0 : Media and Interfaces
Covers the physical characteristics of the
interface and media, including cables,
connectors, drivers, transmitters, and receivers.

Examples of media :
twisted pair
coaxial
multi mode/single mode fiber
fiber light sources
long wave lasers
FC-1, and FC-2:
FC-1: Transmission Protocol
Defines how FC-0 signals are patterned to carry data
and how port-to-port links are initialized.

FC-2: Framing and Signaling Protocol
Defines the rules for signaling and the transfer of data.
Defines various classes of services, some examples:
Class 1: Is a full-duplex dedicated link between 2
ports. (Highest quality of service because it is the
most effective in transferring large amounts of data
at very high speed.
Class 2: Multiplexed connection , where 1 port can
carry different exchanges with many other ports.
Class 3: Multicast and broadcast where theres no
confirmation of receipt.
FC-3 and FC-4:
FC-3: Common Services
Defines commons services provided by two or
more node ports in a host system. (Ex. Two or
more node ports, sharing a common port address,
which increases the bandwidth available from node
port to fabric ports).
FC-4: Protocol Mappings
Formed by series of profiles defining how to map
legacy protocols to Fibre Channel.
Profiles for protocols like IP, SCSI, for disk drives,
and several others are already defined here.
Fibre Channel Layers
/
FC-3
FC-4
Fibre Channel Layers
The previous picture illustrates the relationship
between the media type and the operating range for
each Fibre Channel, which is defined by the FC-0
layer.
For example we see that a Multimode Fiber medium has
a transfer rate of 133Mbps-266Mbps.
And Singlemode Fiber medium has a range of
531Mbps-1.06Gbps.
Whereas a copper medium has a transfer rate
2.12Gbps-4.25Gbps.

Fibre Channel Layers (continued)
We also observe the relationship between FC-0
and FC-1, where FC-1 defines how the signals
are carried by the FC-0 layer.

We also observe that the FC-2 layer defines the
framing protocol, and flow control.
We also observe that FC-3 defines the common
services.
And that FC-4 is the layer defining the protocols like
IP.

Fabric Topologies
There are three topologies for Fibre Channel
Fabrics:
Point-to-point
Where two node ports have the same signaling
rate and class of service.
Switched
Where 16 million node ports can be
interconnected.
Loop (Ring)
Organizes up to 127 Fibre Channel ports on a ring,
and distributes the routing functions among them.
It is used more than the switched topology.
It also costs less than switched topology.
Conclusion
Once again Fibre Channel is a high speed peripheral
transmission technology used in networks.
With a transmission rate of 100MB/sec and with a
full-duplex flow of transmission.
It is defined by five layers which are FC-0, FC-1, FC-
2, FC-3, and FC-4, and they define the media,
transmission rates, coding/encoding, framing, flow,
and protocols supported.
And when compared to the Ethernet and ATM
technologies it is the best.
Experts agree that Fibre Channel is the first
technology with the potential to move the data
communications industry into a low-cost-of-
ownership, commodity phase.
THANK YOU.