![]() | This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page. (Learn how and when to remove these template messages)
|
Fibre Channel | |
---|---|
Layer 4. Protocol mapping | |
LUN masking | |
Layer 3. Common services | |
Layer 2. Network | |
Fibre Channel fabric Fibre Channel zoning Registered state change notification | |
Layer 1. Data link | |
Fibre Channel 8b/10b encoding | |
Layer 0. Physical |
Fibre Channel (FC) is a high-speed data transfer protocol providing in-order, lossless[1] delivery of raw block data.[2] Fibre Channel is primarily used to connect computer data storage to servers[3][4] in storage area networks (SAN) in commercial data centers.
Fibre Channel networks form a switched fabric because the switches in a network operate in unison as one big switch. Fibre Channel typically runs on optical fiber cables within and between data centers, but can also run on copper cabling.[3][4] Supported data rates include 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, and 128 gigabit per second resulting from improvements in successive technology generations. The industry now notates this as Gigabit Fibre Channel (GFC).
There are various upper-level protocols for Fibre Channel, including two for block storage. Fibre Channel Protocol (FCP) is a protocol that transports SCSI commands over Fibre Channel networks.[3][4] FICON is a protocol that transports ESCON commands, used by IBM mainframe computers, over Fibre Channel. Fibre Channel can be used to transport data from storage systems that use solid-state flash memory storage medium by transporting NVMe protocol commands.