APPENDIX E Glossary

AL_PA or

A one-byte value used to identify a port in an Arbitrated Loop

Arbitrated Loop

topology. The value of the AL_PA corresponds to bits 7:0 of the

Physical Address

24-bit Native Address Identifier.

Arbitrated Loop

A Fibre Channel topology structured as a loop and requiring a

 

port to successfully arbitrate prior to establishing a circuit to

 

send and/or receive frames.

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

The fill word that the Loop Port State Machine uses when a fill

Word

word is to be transmitted.

DHCP

Dynamic Host Control Protocol. An Internet-based protocol

 

enabling nodes to dynamically acquire network addresses for

 

periods of time.

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 and networking

 

functionality in a single connectivity technology. Fibre channel

 

is an open standard as defined by ANSI and OSI standards and

 

operates over copper and fiber optic cabling at distances of up

 

to 10 Kilometers. It is unique in its support of multiple inter-

 

operable topologies including point-to-point, 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.

LIP/LIP sequence

Loop Initialization Primitive. A sequence used to accomplish

 

one or more of the following objectives:

 

• Initiate a procedure that results in unique addressing for all

 

nodes.

 

• Indicate a switch failure.

 

• Reset a specific node.

Mb/s

Megabits per second, 1,024,000 bits per second.

MB/s

Megabytes per second, 8,192,000 bits per second.

 

One byte = 8 bits

Node

An entity with one or more N_Ports or NL_Ports.

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Vixel 335 manual Appendix E Glossary