Fibre Channel Glossary

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ANSI

American National Standards Institute, the coordinating organization for voluntary standards in the United States

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Arbitrated Loop Topology

a Fibre Channel topology that provides a (FC-AL) solution to attach multiple communicating ports in a loop

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Arbitration

the process of selecting one respondent from a collection of several candidates that request service concurrently

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Asynchronous Transmission Mode (ATM)

a type of packet that transmits fixed length unit of data

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Broadcast

sending a transmission to all N_Ports on a fabric

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Channel

a point-to-point link, the main task being transporting data from one point to another

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Controller

a computer module that interprets signals between a host and a peripheral device.

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CRC (cyclic redundancy check)

an error correcting code used in Fibre Channel

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E_Port

an expansion port on a switch. It is used to link multiple switches together into a Fibre Channel Fabric.

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ESCON

Enterprise Systems connection

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Fabric

a group of interconnections between ports that include a fabric element

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F_Port

a port in the fabric where an N_port or NL_port may attach

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FCP

Fibre Channel Protocol

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FL_Port

a port in fabric where an Nport or an NL_Port may attach

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Fibre Channel

up to 2 Gigabit per second data transfer interface technology that maps several common transport protocols including IP and SCSI, allowing it to merge high-speed I/O and network functionality in a single connectivity technology

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Full duplex

a communication protocol that permits simultaneous transmissions in both directions, usually with flow control.

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G_Port

generic switch port that can be either F_port or an E_port. Port fucntion is automatically determined during login

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GBIC

Gigabit Interface converter, these devices can be obtained in copper DB9, HSSDC and Fibre Optic type connection. GBICS are hot swappable allowing re-configuration to take place on a live system with no down time

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HBA (host bus adapter)

this is the card that fits into the server workstation to provide the interface between the processor and Fibre Channel connection (loop, fabric)

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HIPPI (High Performance Parallel Interface)

an ANSI standard for high speed transfer of information in a dual simplex manner over a short parallel bus

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HSSDC-style Connector

high speed serial direct connect. Copper connector used on both 1-Gb and 2-Gb Fibre Channel devices.

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I/O

input/output

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IP (Internet Protocol)

a set of protocols developed by Department of Defense to communicate between dissimilar computers across networks

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IPI (Intelligent Peripheral Interface)

an ANSI standard for controlling peripheral devices by a host computer

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L_Port

an arbitrated loop port

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LAN

Local Area Network

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LC-style Connector

Compact optical connector used primarily with 2-Gb Fibre Channel devices. This connector can be fixed or pluggable.

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N_Port

a port attached to a node for use with point to point or fabric topology

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NL_Port

a port attached to a node for use in all three FC topologies

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Node

a device that has at least one N_Port or NL_Port

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Point-to-Point

a topology where two points communicate

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Port

an access point in a device where a link attaches

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RAID Array (Redundant Array of Independent Disks)

intelligent devices that are seen by Fibre Channel as a single device regardless of how many drives are in the array

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SAN (Storage Area Network)

a dedicated, high-speed network that establishes a direct connection between storage elements and servers.

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Switch

enabling devices for large fabrics. Can be connected together to allow scalability to thousands of nodes

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ULP (Upper Layer Protocols)

different communication protocols that can be carried by Fibre Channel

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Zoning

a logical separation of traffic between host and resources. By breaking up into zones, processing activity is distributed evenly