Fibre Channel Protocol Architecture Fibre Channel Layered Model
FC-3: Common Services
FC-3 is an “expandable” layer that is designed to support services, such as :
Authentication Encryption Compression
Link multiplexing Disk mirroring
Virtualization
T11 group are responsible for FC-SP tasked with looking at FCsec similar to IPsec
ULPs
FC-4
FC-3 Common Services
FC-2 Framing & flow control
FC-0 Physical Interface FC-1 Encoding
FC-3 is responsible for common services: FC-3 deals with authentication, encryption, key distribution, etc.
FCsec is analogous to IPsec. Can encrypt Fibre Channel payload.
Distribute key services. Can be used for authentication. 3 options are DHCHAP, FCAP or FCPAP. The preferred method for authentication is CHAP. Encryption and authentication are now available from the majority of vendors but no-one has introduced compression yet.
There is no standard for ISL trunking so, although this is a work in progress, it is not being used.