Introduction to Fibre Channel over Ethernet

Introduction to Fibre Channel over Ethernet

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2008 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved.

What is FCoE?
Conceptually, Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) can be broken down into three components: Encapsulation of a Native Fibre Channel Frame into an Ethernet frame The extension of Ethernet to become a lossless fabric The replacing of a Fibre Channel link with MAC addresses in a lossless Ethernet fabric

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2008 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved.

Why the Need for FCoE?

Evolving business requirements
Enterprises have a need for these abilities: High speed High density Low latency Consolidated networks

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2008 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved.

FCoE is a New Proposed Standard

Being developed by the International Committee for Information Technology Standards (INCITS) T11 committee Maps Fibre Chanel natively over Ethernet
Independent of Ethernet forwarding scheme

Current proposal
Leverages lossless Ethernet fabric Maintains the Fibre Channel operational model Includes newly approved frame format

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2008 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved.

FCoE Requirements
Keep Fibre Channel and Ethernet forwarding orthogonal
No need to change Ethernet forwarding to support FCoE. Keep the model agnostic to the forwarding used in Ethernet.

Possibility to have the FCoE forwarder function only on a subset of the switches composing an Ethernet network Ability to enable FCoE forwarding on a per-VLAN basis VLANs and virtual storage area networks (VSANs) assigned from the same numbering space

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2008 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved.

FCoE Terminology
Ethernet HBA: an FCoE-enabled host bus adapter (HBA) FCoE forwarder: the function inside a switch performing the Fibre Channel data and control planes
Possibly providing Fibre Channel services to Ethernet HBAs

FCoE gateway: the function inside a switch performing the encapsulation and decapsulation of Fibre Channel frames in Ethernet frames Inter-Fabric router: a function that is performing Fibre Channel routing among different Fibre Channel fabrics
Posted to the Cisco Learning Network www.cisco.com/go/learningnetwork 2008 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved.

From Fibre Channel to FCoE

Fibre Channel Stack

FCoE
FC-4 Protocol Map
Fibre Channel Levels (unchanged)

FC-4 Protocol Map

FC-3 Services FC-2 Framing FC-1 Data (Encoding / Decoding FC-0 Physical

FC-3 Services FC-2 Framing FCoE Mapping

2 - MAC 1 - Physical

IEEE 802.3 Layers

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2008 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved.

Frame Format
Destination MAC Address 4 bits Source MAC Address 12 bits IEEE 802.1Q Tag ET = FCoE Ver Reserved 8 bits SOF

Reserved 8 bits Reserved Reserved

Encapsulated Fibre Channel Frame (including FC-CRC)

EOF

Reserved
Ethernet FCS

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2008 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved.

Architectural Differences with IP Routing

FCoE forwarder and IP router Like an IP router, an FCoE forwarder forwards Fibre Channel frames based on a Layer 3 lookup. That is, based on the D_ID (Domain_ID) Unlike an IP router, an FCoE forwarder forwards Fibre Channel frames in a single VLAN. An IP router forwards IP packets across different VLANs Fibre Channel router and IP router Like an IP router, a Fibre Channel router forwards Fibre Channel frames across different VLANs. Unlike an IP router, a Fibre Channel router performs some address translation functions. For example, a rewrite of the D_ID or the S_ID

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FCoE: FC over Ethernet

Fibre Channel carried over DCE as a Layer 3 protocol
Applications TCP IP Data Center Ethernet
An FCoE forwarder is explicitly addressed by an Ethernet HBA (via the Fibre Channel MAC address). An FCoE forwarder receives FCoE frames addressed to its Fibre Channel MAC address and forwards them based on the D_ID of the encapsulated Fibre Channel frame. An FCoE forwarder rewrites the source address and destination address of an FCoE frame.

SCSI Fibre Channel FCoE

UDP

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FCoE Packaging
FCoE may be added:
to an Ethernet switch to a Fibre Channel switch

The result is two different Fibre Channel forwarder logical models:

Type C (connected) A Fibre Channel forwarder in a VLAN is logically coupled with one Ethernet bridge function attached to all Ethernet ports of the switch belonging to that VLAN. For example, FCoE implemented on top of an Ethernet switch. Type D (disconnected) A Fibre Channel forwarder in a VLAN is logically coupled with more than one Ethernet bridge function, each attached to a subset of the Ethernet ports of the switch belonging to that VLAN. For example, FCoE implemented in line cards of a Fibre Channel switch.
Posted to the Cisco Learning Network www.cisco.com/go/learningnetwork 2008 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved.

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Summary
FCoE is the encapsulation of native Fibre Channel into an Ethernet frame. Need for FCoE is due to evolving business requirements. FCoE is being developed by INCITS T11. FCoE must utilize jumbo frames (or the 2.5K baby jumbo). Fibre Channel forwarder forwards frames based on a Layer 3 lookup. FCoE may be added to an Ethernet switch or to a Fibre Channel switch. Encapsulation of Fibre Channel frames occurs through the mapping of Fibre Channel onto Ethernet.
Posted to the Cisco Learning Network www.cisco.com/go/learningnetwork 2008 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved.

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Posted to the Cisco Learning Network www.cisco.com/go/learningnetwork

2008 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved.

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