Vixel 335 manual APPENDIX E Glossary

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.

68