4
Glossary
Glossary

Some terms used in the Fibre Channel industry are defined below. More information is available through

the Fibre Channel Industry Associ ation (www.fibrechannel.com), the Storage Area Networking Industry

Association (www.snia.org) and the Fibre Channel Consortium (www.iol.unh.edu).

Term Definition
fabric A Fibre Channel switch or two or more Fibre Channel switches interc onnected to
physically transmit data between any two N_Ports on a switch or switches.
failover The substitution of a working system for one which has failed.
FC-AL Fibre Channel Arbitrated Loop: A Fibre Channel network in which up to 126
systems and devices 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 c onnected via
a fabric switch to extend the network.
firmware Software stored in read-only memory (ROM) or programmable ROM (PROM).
Firmware is often responsible for the behavior of a system when it i s first sw itched
on.
F_port A port in the Fibre Channel fabric where a N_port may attach
FL-port A port in the Fibre Channel fabric where a NL_port may attach in an arbitrated
loop
initiator device A component which originates a command
LED Light-emitting diode, a type of diode that emits light when current passes th rough
it. Visible LEDs are used as indicator lights on all sorts of electronic devices.
LUN Logical Unit Number: a SCSI or Fibre Channel identifier of a device
NL port a port attached to a node in Fibre Channel arbitrated loop or fabric loop
configurations
N_port a por t attached to a node used with point to point or fabric configurations
SCSI Small Computer Systems Interface: a processor-independent standard for
system-level interface between a com puter and in telligent d e vice s includ ing hard
disks, floppy disks, CD-ROM, printers, scanners, etc.
topology logical layout of the parts of a computer system or network and their
interconnections