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A frame is a set of bytes containing control (i.e., routing) and data elements. A frame is the atomic unit in Fiber Channel. Frame overhead is a fixed 36 bytes. Frames are variable from 36 bytes (control information only) to 2,112 bytes long, which allows it to be very efficient for normal-size exchanges between computers as well as to and from mass storage connections. Exhibit 2 illustrates framing, message assembly, and message disassembly.
Exhibit 2. Fiber Channel Information Transfer.
Fiber Channel further defines classes of messages that encompass both circuit connection (class 1) and packet connection (classes 2, 3, 4). Class 2 guarantees delivery and acknowledgment, a unique feature in packetized protocol technologies that improves transfer efficiency because:
Many small-scale implementations use class 3 (i.e., packetized datagram-unreliable) because it is simpler to implement and relatively reliable.
Forms of Fiber Channel connection include point-to-point loop, arbitrated, and switched fabric (see Exhibit 3). Users should select the connection that fits their application without device-cost impact. Topologies are designed to be interconnectable and upgradable.
Exhibit 3. Fiber Channel Topologies.
Point-to-point links provide a dedicated high-bandwidth connection, such as the one from a disk array to a server. Some forms provide high availability, fault tolerant access for two-server/two-disk-array applications.
In the switched fabric topology, traffic between Fiber Channel ports passes through an intermediary switch called a fabric that combines cross-bar and packet-switching capabilities. Multiple switches can be linked together to form larger fabrics.
Like other switched media (e.g., Fast Ethernet switching hubs ATM switches), capacity in switched fabric topologies is scalable. New switch modules are added to connect additional devices and the aggregate throughput increases to accommodate the increased load.
Fabrics can also interconnect devices with different speed and Fiber Channel media, so the speed and cost of the Fiber Channel link can be selected to match the anticipated traffic from the bridge or router.
Fiber Channel fabrics provide multicast services without requiring external frame replication servers, although the size of a multicast packet is limited to the maximum frame size of the fabric (generally 2K bytes). Available fabrics support datagram, acknowledged connectionless, and connection-oriented service classes. In the future, some fabrics will support a virtual circuit-oriented class of service, in which multiple circuits with guaranteed bandwidth can be established by a single port.
In the arbitrated loop topology, up to 126 nodes can be connected in a shared-media topology. Instead of a circulating token or a collision sense mechanism, a simple arbitration mechanism ensures fairness. Star topologies with passive hubs provide robustness; some hub ports may be equipped with a loop bypass circuit to ensure continued loop operation if the port is offline.
Current implementations use TwinAxcess operating at a gigabit, which has ample capacity for interconnecting disk drives that can source on the average less than 20M bytes or network connections with 10M bps and a certain number of 100M-bps LANs (Ethernet).
Low cost is the primary advantage of the arbitrated loop topology. Only half the number of transceivers are required compared with fabric connections, and no switch is required. However, because bandwidth is shared among all nodes on an individual loop, the number of devices will be limited if many have high-traffic requirements.
Fiber Channel can be viewed as an application-to-application connection using a common adapter port, such as a workstation, PC, storage array, disk drive, or any other appropriate peripheral (this port is known as the N_Port in Fiber Channel lexicon) and a common interconnection technology (i.e., point-to-point, loop, or switched). Exhibit 4 illustrates simultaneous multiplexed connections among applications using Fiber Channel.
Many applications can benefit from the economies of scale of other applications, with the incremental costs being small for both the hardware and software elements. For little additional complexity, a connection can be both serial SCSI and TCP/IP. Examples include multiple video connections (being investigated by digital video and digital movie studios), clustering and disk file access, and interactive medical applications that require streaming of data from an imaging device (e.g., MRI) and simultaneously sending the data via TCP/IP to a doctors office in the same facility.
Because of its unique architecture, Fiber Channel can offer the high-performance, low-cost connection required by bandwidth-intensive applications. By combining the attributes of a channel and a network, Fiber Channel enables data transfer rates that are up to 250 times faster than many network protocols. Now that computers are faster and better able to handle large amounts of data, a network interconnection is needed that can handle higher speeds. Fiber Channel is emerging as the information connection technology that enables reliability and performance at record speeds.
Exhibit 4. Simultaneous Multiplexed Connections.
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