Brocade Communications Systems 53-1001761-01 Introducing FCoE, FCoE terminology, FCoE overview

	Chapter
Introducing FCoE	1

In this chapter

•FCoE terminology. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

•FCoE overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

•Layer 2 Ethernet overview. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

•FCoE Initialization Protocol . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

•FCoE queuing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

FCoE terminology

Table 1 lists and describes the FCoE terminology used in this document.

TABLE 1	FCoE terminology
Term		Description
FCoE		Fibre Channel over Ethernet
CEE		Converged Enhanced Ethernet
VN_port		FCoE equivalent of an FC N_port
VF_port		FCoE equivalent of an FC F_port
ENode		An FCoE device that supports FCoE VN_ports
		(servers and target devices)
FCoE Forwarder (FCF)		An FCoE link end point that provides FC fabric
		services

FCoE overview

Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) enables you to transport FC protocols and frames over Converged Enhanced Ethernet (CEE) networks. CEE is an enhanced Ethernet that enables the convergence of various applications in data centers (LAN, SAN, and HPC) onto a single interconnect technology.

FCoE provides a method of encapsulating the Fibre Channel (FC) traffic over a physical Ethernet link. FCoE frames use a unique EtherType that enables FCoE traffic and standard Ethernet traffic to be carried on the same link. FC frames are encapsulated in an Ethernet frame and sent from one FCoE-aware device across an Ethernet network to a second FCoE-aware device. The FCoE-aware devices may be FCoE end nodes (ENodes) such as servers, storage arrays, or tape drives on one end and FCoE Forwarders on the other end. FCoE Forwarders (FCFs) are switches providing FC fabric services and FCoE-to-FC bridging.

Converged Enhanced Ethernet Administrator’s Guide	1
53-1001761-01