Fibre Channel SAN Extension Transport Architectures
IP Transport Architectures Campus/ Metro Area Network Short distance <= 60km SONET/SDH SONET/SDH Medium distance <= 160km
IP Routed WAN
Long distance > 160km
Routed IP WAN: Frame Relay ATM
Packet-over-SONET (POS)
Ethernet: Campus (owned) Metro GigE (leased)
A number of options are available for transporting FC over IP. In general, the choice will depend primarily on the desired distance, although cost, bandwidth, and latency are obviously factors as well:
Campus Ethernet is the obvious choice if a local Ethernet infrastructure is feasible, and many service providers are now offering Metro Gigabit Ethernet service in major metropolitan areas.
SONET/SDH can provide the same (or even greater) bandwidth as a campus or leased metro Ethernet infrastructure, over longer distances, but at a higher cost. This type of implementation would be good for asynchronous mirroring or remote backup.
Public ATM and Frame Relay networks have no distance limitations - if the higher latency can be tolerated. Public IP networks are best suited for snapshot or other types of applications.