Glossary
Address—An address is a data structure or logical convention used to identify a unique entity, such as a particular process or network device.
Arbitrated loop physical address (AL_PA)—An AL_PA is a 1-byte value used in an arbitrated loop topology. This value is used to identify L_Ports. The value then becomes the last byte of the address identifier for each public L_Port on the loop.
Bus—See Channel.
Channel—A channel is a common physical path composed of wires or other media, across which signals are sent from one part of a computer to another. A channel is a means of transferring data between modules and adapters, or between an adapter and SCSI devices. A channel topology network consists of a single cable trunk that connects one workstation to the next in a daisy-chain configuration. All nodes share the same medium, and only one node can broadcast messages at a time.
Fabric—Fabric refers to a switched topology, which is one of the three FC topologies. Fabric elements, which are responsible for frame routing, interconnect various N_Ports or NL_Ports. Depending on vendor support, fabric switches may be interconnected to support up to 16 million N_Ports on a single network.
Fibre—Fibre is a generic FC term that refers to all transmission media types specified in the FC Physical Layer standard (FC-PH), such as optical fiber, copper twisted pair, and copper coaxial cable.
Fibre channel (FC)—FC is a bidirectional, point-to-point serial data channel, structured for high-performance capability. In the physical sense, an FC is an interconnection of multiple communication points, called N_Ports, by a switching network (fabric). FC transports incoming data from devices by reading the buffer information, packaging it, and sending the information across the fabric. Although FC is a generalized transport mechanism that has no protocol of its own or native I/O command set, it can transport any existing upper level protocol such as SCSI and IP. FC offers high-speed data transfer rates up to 1 Gbps. FC is most commonly used to connect clustered servers to storage systems. ANSI has developed standards for FC.
FC adapter—An FC adapter is a printed circuit assembly that translates data between the FC host processor’s internal bus and FC link.
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