ATTO Technology 3400 Fibre Channel is a key technology for storage, Glossary, Term Definition

1 Fibre Channel is a key technology for storage

Fibre Channel is a serial communications technology designed to transfer large amounts of data between a variety of hardware systems over long distances. It is a key technology for applications that require shared, high bandwidth access to storage.

Fibre Channel provides a logical point-to point serial channel for the transfer of data between a buffer at a source device and a buffer at a destination device. It moves buffer contents from one port to another, without regard to the format or meaning of the data, so different upper level protocols are able to run over Fibre Channel hardware.

The Fibre Channel architecture is structured as a hierarchical set of protocol layers. Defined within these layers are rules for signal interfaces, serial encoding and decoding, error control, frame format and communications protocols.

A SAN is a shared storage architecture connecting computers and storage devices for online data access. Each connected system can directly access any attached storage device. Storage devices could include RAID, tape backup, tape library, CD-ROM library or JBOD.

SANs maintain greater fault tolerance and load balancing by supporting server clustering and failover (the ability for one server to take over for another in the event of a failure).

The ATTO FibreCenter™ 3400 hub integrates industry-leading performance and Storage Area Network capabilities into mid-range applications.

Glossary

Some terms used in the Fibre Channel industry are defined below. More information is available through the Fibre Channel Industry Association (www.fibrechannel.com), the Storage Area Networking Industry Association (www.snia.org) and the Fibre Channel Consortium (www.iol.unh.edu).

Term	Definition
firmware	Software stored in read-only memory (ROM) or programmable ROM (PROM).
	Firmware is often responsible for the behavior of a system when it is first switched
	on.
FC-AL	Fibre Channel Arbitrated Loop: A Fibre Channel network in which up to 126
	nodes are connected in a loop topology, with each transmitter connecting to the
	receiver of the device to its logical right. The Fibre Channel Arbitrated Loop
	protocol used for transmission is different from Fibre Channel switched and point
	to point protocols. Multiple FC-AL loops can be connected via a fabric switch to
	extend the network.
FL-port	A port in the Fibre Channel fabric where an NL_port may attach in an arbitrated
	loop.
hub	A device which provides a common connection to devices on a Fibre Channel
	Arbitrated Loop
initiator device	A component which originates a command

1 ATTO FibreCenter 3400 Installation and Operation Manual