– Each concurrent conversation can access the full link bandwidth
• Over 16,000,000 available addresses
• Management features:
– Zoning (security) – Name Server (discovery) – Multicast and broadcast – Management services
Fibre Channel Switched Fabric (FC-SW) topology:
Most common today due to scalability and performance Each path has the full link bandwidth Theoretically, the FC-SW device addressing scheme allows over 16,000,000 addresses, using the full 24 bit addressing range, but the practical limit is still in the hundreds or thousands FC switches offer the same advantages over FC hubs as Ethernet switches offer over Ethernet hubs: Scalable bandwidth More flexible configuration