Fibre Channel Connections GbE Connections IP Infrastructure
IP TCP FCIP FC SCSI Data
This slide reviews the basic architecture of FCIP.
FCIP was originally developed and put forward as a concept by a company called SAN Valley, FCIP then became a standard.
• the data gets wrapped up inside the SCSI headers • the SCSI frame then gets put inside our FC frame • the entire FC frame (including start of frame and end of frame markers) then gets wrapped up in an FCIP header (a Fibre Channel Frame encapsulation header)
So the entire FC frame is wrapped up inside FCIP, which is another 28 byte header. That is then wrapped up inside TCP (transmission control protocol) in order to guarantee delivery . That then gets put inside IP (internet protocol headers) which is our logical, routable address. Which, of course, could then go inside whatever the IP is running over? So we take the entire FC frame, tunnel it through our IP network, and put it back to a FC network at the other end.