Fiber Channel over IP
| application | FCIP | ||||
| transport | TCP | ||||
| Internet | IP ( IPv4 , IPv6 ) | ||||
| Network access | Ethernet |
Token bus |
Token ring |
FDDI | ... |
Fiber Channel over IP ( FCIP ) is a transport protocol that wraps Fiber Channel packets in TCP in order to transport them over standard TCP / IP networks. FCIP is described as an open standard in RFC 3821 and is supported by various manufacturers. FCIP can be used, for example, to use the existing Ethernet infrastructure to transmit Fiber Channel data.
Fiber Channel is mainly used in storage networks and is characterized by left-oriented flow control and freedom from loss. These two characteristics (flow control and freedom from loss) are usually ensured through hardware implementations. When tunneling Fiber Channel over IP networks, these characteristics must also be preserved. It is not possible to pack FC directly in IP, since IP does not guarantee any flow control or loss of freedom. Therefore, FC can only be tunneled over TCP.
FCIP is not very common. In the last few years, Fiber Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) has been used more and more, with no simple Ethernet switches being used here either, but rather those that can map (flow control and freedom from loss).
See also
Web links
- RFC 3821 - Fiber Channel Over TCP / IP (FCIP)