Compaq AA-RHGWB-TE manual Point-to-Point, Fabric

•Arbitrated loop (Section 6.2.2.3)

______________________ Note _______________________

Although it is possible to interconnect an arbitrated loop with fabric, hybrid configurations are not supported at the present time, and therefore not discussed in this manual.

6.2.2.1 Point-to-Point

The point-to-point topology is the simplest Fibre Channel topology. In a point-to-point topology, one N_Port is connected to another N_Port by a single link.

Because all frames transmitted by one N_Port are received by the other N_Port, and in the same order in which they were sent, frames require no routing.

Figure 6–1 shows an example point-to-point topology.

Figure 6–1: Point-to-Point Topology

Node 1

TransmitTransmit

N_Port

ReceiveReceive

Node 2

N_Port

ZK-1534U-AI

6.2.2.2 Fabric

The fabric topology provides more connectivity than point-to-point topology. The fabric topology can connect up to 224 ports.

The fabric examines the destination address in the frame header and routes the frame to the destination node.

A fabric may consist of a single switch, or there may be several interconnected switches (up to three interconnected switches is supported). Each switch contains two or more fabric ports (F_Port) that are internally

6–6Using Fibre Channel Storage