Brocade Communications Systems Converged Enhanced Ethernet 53-1002163-02 - Manual (Page 23)

Converged Enhanced Ethernet Administrator’s Guide 1
53-1002163-02
DRAFT: BROCADE CONFIDENTIAL
Chapter
1
Introducing FCoE
In this chapter
• FCoE terminology. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
• FCoE overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
• Layer 2 Ethernet overview. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
• FCoE Initialization Protocol . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
• FCoE queuing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
• Upgrade and downgrade considerations for FCoE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
FCoE terminology
Table 2 lists and describes the FCoE terminology used in this document.
FCoE overview
Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) enables you to transport FC protocols and frames over
Converged Enhanced Ethernet (CEE) networks. CEE is an enhanced Ethernet that enables the
convergence of various applications in data centers (LAN, SAN, and HPC) onto a single interconnect
technology.
TABLE 2 FCoE terminology
Term Description
FCoE Fibre Channel over Ethernet
CEE Converged Enhanced Ethernet
VN_port FCoE equivalent of an FC N_port
VF_port FCoE equivalent of an FC F_port
ENode An FCoE device that supports FCoE VN_ports
(servers and target devices)
FCoE Forwarder (FCF) An FCoE link end point that provides FC fabric
services
FIP FCoE Initialization Protocol