Seagate Fibre Channel Interface - Manual (Page 63)

Fibre Channel Interface Manual, Rev. D 49
8.4.2 Blocking switch emulation
When two NL_Ports open communication with each other (see the OPNyx discussion in Section 8.3), commu-
nication between other devices is effectively blocked (other than to retransmit frames or insert fill words). This
is known as a blocking environment since the two communicating ports block operation between any other
L_Ports.
8.4.3 Non-meshed environment
FC-AL is called a non-meshed environment due to the fact that there is only one route to any other port. A
meshed environment (like a fabric) is like a telephone system in which there are many routes possible between
two communicating entities.