Fibre channel over ethernet, In this chapter, Fcoe overview – Brocade Network Advisor SAN + IP User Manual v12.1.0 User Manual
Page 730: Chapter 20, Chapter 20, “fibre channel over ethernet
Brocade Network Advisor SAN + IP User Manual
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Chapter
20
Fibre Channel over Ethernet
In this chapter
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DCB configuration management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 678
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Switch, port, and LAG deployment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 712
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Network OS switches in VCS mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 717
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FCoE overview
Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) leverages Ethernet enhancements, called Data Center Bridging
(DCB), to transport encapsulated Fibre Channel frames over Ethernet. Ethernet is the physical layer
over which the encapsulated Fibre Channel frames are transported.
One of the barriers to using Ethernet as the basis for a converged network has been the limited
bandwidth that Ethernet has historically provided. However, with 10 Gbps Ethernet, the available
bandwidth offers the potential to consolidate all the traffic types over the same link.
Unlike Fibre Channel, Ethernet is not a peer-to-peer protocol. The mechanism used to discover new
ports, MAC address assignments, and Fibre Channel logins and logouts is called the FCoE
Initialization Protocol (FIP).