HP IP Distance Gateway - Manual (Page 9)

FCIP overview
FCIP enables connectivity between geographically dispersed FC devices over an IP network. To
deploy FCIP, two mpx110 gateways are required. Each gateway is configured for FCIP and
connected to a fabric. The gateways are connected to each other through an IP network
(LAN/WAN). For more information, see
Figure 1 (page 9) .
Local FC devices need no additional hardware or software to access remote FC devices using the
mpx110 deployed for FCIP.
Figure 1 FCIP overview
Using FCIP to encapsulate FC packets
With FCIP, gateways transport FC frames over an IP network. From the perspective of the local
and remote fabrics, the FC devices accessed through the gateways appear to be part of one unified
fabric. This effect is possible because FC traffic is carried over the IP network in such a way that
the FC fabric and all FC devices on the fabric are unaware of the presence of the IP network.
Once configured, FCIP instances on each gateway become active and establish their connectivity
through the IP network. The FC devices in the local fabric access the FC devices in the remote
fabric using FC frames. The FC frames are encapsulated in IP packets by the local gateway and
then transmitted to the remote gateway. The remote gateway strips the IP packet data and passes
only the FC frames to the remote FC devices.
The gateways deployed for FCIP are configured to use TCP, which uses standard TCP flow control
and error recovery algorithms.
FCIP overview 9