Storage Networking Architectures Storage Transport Protocols
Why Fibre Channel?
• Fibre Channel “carries”, or encapsulates, other communication protocols:
•SCSI-3 •FICON
•IP •HiPPI
•FC-VI •FC-AV •FC-AE
• Fibre Channel can carry multiple protocols simultaneously to support a variety of applications
SCSI-3 VI FICON IP Fibre Channel
The multi-protocol capabilities of Fibre Channel enable SANs to meet the needs of diverse applications:
SCSI (Small Computer Systems Interface) provides a command set for reading and writing data to and from storage devices. Most Fibre Channel implementations use the serial SCSI-3 protocol, allowing the use of inexpensive SCSI disks in SANs.
ESCON (Enterprise Systems Connection) is a storage interconnect used in mainframe enterprise computing environments. FICON (Fibre Connector) allows ESCON assets to be used within a Fibre Channel SAN infrastructure.
HiPPI (High Performance Parallel Interface) connects devices at short distances and high speeds. HiPPI is used primarily to connect supercomputers and to provide high-speed backbones for LANs.