EMULEX MODEL 355 SAN STORAGE SWITCH
USER’S GUIDE APPENDIX E: GLOSSARY
EMULEX CORPORATION 66
PART NUMBER 00041407-002 REV. B
APPENDIX E Glossary
AL_PA or Arbitrated Loop
Physical Address
A one-byte value used to identify a port in an Arbitrated Loop topology. The value
of the AL_PA corresponds to bits 7:0 of the 24-bit Native Address Identifier.
Arbitration The process of selecting one respondent from a group requesting service at the
same time.
Close (CLS) An Arbitrated Loop protocol used to terminate a loop circuit.
Current Fill Word The fill word that the Loop Port State Machine uses when a fill word is to be
transmitted.
Duplex Cable Two fibers in one cable suitable for duplex transmission.
Fiber Optics Light transmission through optical fibers for communication or signaling
Fibre Channel Fibre Channel is a data transfer interface technology that maps several common
transport protocols including IP and SCSI, allowing it to merge high-speed I/O an d
networking functionality in a single connectivity te chnology. Fibre channel is an
open standard as defined by ANSI and OSI standards a nd operates over copper
and fiber optic cabling at distances of up to 10 Kilometers. It is unique in its support
of multiple interoperable topologies including point-to-poi nt, arbitrated-loop and
switching and it offers several qualities of service for network optimization. With its
large packet sizes, Fibre Channel is ideal for storage, video, graphic and mass
data transfer applications.
LED Light-Emitting Diode. A status indicator on a switch.
Gb/s Gigabits per second.
Node An entity with one or more N_Ports or NL_Ports.
Open (OPN) An Ar bitrated Loop protocol used to establish a loop circuit.
Protocol A data transmission convention which may include timing, control, formatting, error
detection with correction and data representation.
SCSI Small Computer System Interface. Standard interface for storage modules.
SFP Small Form-Factor Pluggable transceiver. These transceivers are fully compliant
with FC-PI and MSA standards and occupy less than half the board space of the
existing GBIC products.
Topology The logical and/or physical arrangement of stations on a network. Fibre Channel
topologies include point-to-point, Arbitrated Loop, and switched fab ric.
Transceiver A device that converts one form of signaling to another for both transmission and
reception. SFPs and GBICs are transceivers.