• Export, or share devices via EX_Ports on the multi-protocol router. These ports look just like normal E_Ports to the edge fabrics but limit what each edge fabric sees by using Fibre Channel Network Address Translation (FC-NAT). Unlike an E_Port,an EX_Port terminates at the router and does not propagate fabric services or routing topology information to other edge fabrics. Moreover, EX_Ports do not switch between themselves except when crossing between different edge fabrics.
• Create an Inter-Fabric Link (IFL), an E_Port-to-EX_Port connection. • Perform functions similar to an iFCP gateway when tunneling FC over IP.
• Communicate with other routers on the same backbone, using Fibre Channel Routing Protocol (FCRP), a proprietary Brocade technology based on FC standard protocols. FCRP operates on backbone- attached E_Ports. Using a standard E_Port, each Multi-protocol Router on the backbone fabric discovers other routers when they enter that fabric, and sends FCRP messages from its domain address to the other routers’ domain addresses. FCRP also operates between domains projected by EX_Ports into an edge fabric. In addition to these routing tasks, FCRP exchanges LSAN zone information as well as device and fabric state information.