Fibre Channel
Fibre Channel
Fibre Channel
FIBRE CHANNEL
FIBRE CHANNEL
Ex: if loop devices like jbod, hub, tape library are connected to
fabric i.e., switch, the port configures it self to loop port ,it
displays FL (Fabric Loop) near switch port and NL near the port of
Jbod.
F
N
FL
F File I/O Storage
FFA
ABBR
RIIC
C F
E
FL E
EX
FC Router E
NL
FC switch
Hub
Fibre Channel Topologies
FIBRE CHANNEL TOPOLOGIES
There are three types of fibre channel topologies.
1. Point to Point
2. FC-AL (Fibre Channel Arbitrated Loop)
3. Switched Fabric
Point to Point Topology
• No address required
• No multi sharing
Point to Point Topology
Transmitter Transmitter
A B
Receiver Receiver
FC-AL (Fibre Channel –Arbitrated Loop)
Transmitter
Receiver
Transmitter Receiver
A B
Transmitter
Receiver
Receiver
Transmitter
D
FC-AL Hub & Addressing
• Basic topology followed is star topology, that enables any –to –any
communication.
• Failure of a port is isolated and should not affect operation of other ports.
FC-Switch
Switched Fabric Addressing
• In a fabric 239 switches can be connected ,every switch connects several number of
devices to the fabric.
• Address pattern followed in Switched fabric is 24 bit address, which can
accommodate addresses to16 million devices .
• The addressing method in Fibre channel almost resembles TCP/IP addressing.
• In TCP/IP two types of Addresses are available
- Static Address: Media Access Control address (MAC) Address
MAC address is an unique 48 bit physical address
assigned to the device by the manufacturers as directed
by IEEE.
- Dynamic Address: IP Address (Internet Protocol Address)
IP address is 32 bit address bound to the MAC address
of the device, it changes according to the requirements
of network connectivity.
Cont’d
• As there are MAC ID and IP address for TCP/IP networks,Fibre
channel network has WWN (World Wide Name) an unique identifier
as MAC Address and PID (Port Identifier) as IP address which can
be altered depending upon its connectivity.
WWN
WWNN WWPN
World Wide Node Name (WWNN)
5 0 : 0 0 : a b : f e : 1 c : 2 0 : 3 0 : 0 1
NAA
IEEE
Future
vendor
Purpose
WWNN Cont’d
• First field in the WWNN represents the device ,as specified by NAA (Name Assigned Authority)
DEVICES I DENTIFIER
Storage sub system 5
Switch 1
HBA
• Next three fields 2,3& 4 are reserved for future purpose 2
• Next three octets are reserved for IEEE
• Last three octets are reserved for vendor
World Wide Port Name(WWPN)
2 0 : 0 4 : a b : f e : 1 c : 2 0 : 3 0 : 0 1
NAA
IEEE
Port vendor
Address
EX 4th port
WWPN Cont’d
• First field in the WWPN represents the device ,as specified by NAA (Name Assigned Authority)
DEVICES I DENTIFIER
Storage sub system 5
Switch 2
HBA 1
• Next three fields 2,3& 4 are reserved for addressing ports.
• Next three octets are reserved for IEEE
• Last three octets are reserved for vendor
• On a devices there can be many WWPNS ,but only one WWNN is available
• To enforce restrictions on port ,WWPN is used
WWNN &WWPNS
• There are two devices shown once FC-Switch and HBA card.
• Switch has 16 ports and HBA has one port
• HBA is assigned with 1 WWNN and 1WWPN
• Switch is assigned with 1 WWNN and 16 WWPN s.
PID (Port Identifier)
• PID is a 24 bit dynamic address assigned to the port of the device
connected to the fabric.
• Dynamic address is divided into three octets
X X Y Y Z Z
- XX – Domain ID
- YY – Port Number
- ZZ – AL-PA
FC-Switch
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
F F FL 0 4 0 3 0 0
NL
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 FC-AL Hub
N
N
0 0 0 0 0 1
0 4 0 1 0 0 JBOD
0 4 0 0 0 0
0 0 0 0 0 5
Port Identifier (PID)
Port Identifier
Public Id Private Id
• If a device is attached to fabric through FC-Switch, the device is assigned with Public
Id
EX: 0 0 0 0 0 4 (Domain ID & Port Number shows 00 but AL-PA shows 04)
Translative
• Host attached to the fc-switch in a fabric is identified by Public Id.
e.g. 0 4 0 4 0 0
• Jbod connected to the fabric through FC-Al hub is identified by Private Id.
e.g. 0 0 0 0 0 4
• To establish connectivity between host and Jbod, Translative address
should be used.
-Translative-Public address translated to Private address.
Example: 0 4 0 4 0 0
0 0 0 0 0 4
0 4 0 4 0 4 Translative Address
Modes of PID
• In Brocade switches PID is in two modes
PID
0 4 0 4 0 0 Example
0 4 1 4 0 0
Cont’d
• In core PID both the characters in 2 octet shows “yy” i.e., the octet supports
up to 256 ports (00 – ff), The core PID mode is suitable for latest switches
with more number of ports.
• In Native PID out of two character in second octet first character shows 1
and next character shows y i.e,this mode supports only 16 ports (10 –
1f),The native mode is suitable for IInd generation and older switches ,in
which the maximum ports are 16.
• To reduce the loop over head ,the first field in second octet of Native PID
mode is hard coated as 1.
• Once the switch in a fabric is configured in Native PID mode ,the entire
switches in the fabric should be configured to Native mode. So with the
Core PID mode
Well Known address in switch level for well
known Services
Well Known address in switch level for well known Services
In brocade point of View the well known addresses for well known fabric
services are as follows
- Flogi
- Plogi
- Prlogi
- SCN
- RSCN
Fabric controller
RS
N
SC CN
Name Server
Prlogi
Plogi
Flogi Login Server Login Server Flogi
Well Known Services
• Flogi (Fabric login): Once the host is connected it doesn’t communicate with switch
unless login is authenticated and configured, this process runs as follows
- Host sends packet to login server in Switch
- Login server checks the parameters and addresses
- Acknowledgement sent to the Host
- Host is assigned with 24 bit address (PID)
The above process is called ‘Flogi’.
• Plogi (Port login): To access one host from another host in the fabric, the process
runs as follows
- Let us take an example ,we have two hosts (A&B) connected to two
different switches in a fabric.
- A & B updates their respective information to name server
- Once updated A & B can identify and communicate with each other
- The Plogi is accomplished
Cont’d
• Prlogi (Process Logi): To access the SCSI disks in the fabric
• SCN (State Change Notification) : Any internal changes occurs are updated
to fabric controller, through State Change Notification (SCN).
COVER
CORE
CLAD
- if size of the core is 62.5 µ that supports 200 meters of cable length
If the core size increases the angle of light incidence is high and increase in
number of reflections, Increase in reflections of light ray results in absorption of
light, consequently wave length reduces and distance traveled by light ray
decreases.
CORE
LIGHT RAY
SINGLE MODE
CORE
LIGHT RAY
CONNECTORS
GBIC SFP
.
Couplers
MIA –Media Interface adapter converts electronic signals to Optic signals and
converts DB-9 to Siemens Connector.
LHS = RHS
• Communication is done in bits, for every 8 bits another 2 bits are added and
10 bits are generated called character
• The 2 bits serves as parity bits for each 4 bits in a character.
Data Bit P P
Parity Bit
FC-1 CONT’D
• The 10 bits information is transmitted through fibre channel. where there
can be disparity.
• There are three types of disparities
1) Positive(+) disparity
2) Negative(-) disparity
3) Neutral(=) disparity
• In a communication stream every 10 bits comprise of “Zeros(0)” and
“Ones(1)”,
• out of these 10 bits
- Number of ‘1’ s are more than 5 bits it is Positive(+) disparity
- Number of ‘0’ s are more than 5 bits it is Negative(-) disparity
- Number of ‘0’ s and ‘1’ s are equal then it is Neutral disparity
FC-1 CONT’D
• Across the fibre channel neutral disparity should be maintained, as the
(+)Positive disparity is afflicted by (-)Negative volts and (-)Negative
disparity is afflicted by (+)Positive volts.
• To monitor the flow of characters and control the flow of (+)Positive and
(-)Negative disparity across the communication channel a couple of
protocols are developed they are:
- PSM (Port State Machine) for switch
- LPSM (Loop Port State Machine) for hub
• PSM & LPSM follows K28-5 algorithm to monitor and manage the disparity
levels across the link.
FC-1 CONT’D
• 10 bits information generated including the parity is called character in fibre
channel communication.
• Character are punctuated by primitives generated by PSM & LPSM in the
link.
• In fibre channel communication the size of each frame is 2112 bytes,and
each frame is set with delimiters called (SOF) start of frame and (EOF) end
of frame.
• These delimiters are assigned by PSM and LPSM
Frame
S E
O 2112 bytes O
F F
FC-1 Transaction Word
Primitive
Delimiters Signals
Primitives
Controlled by
PSM & LPSM
• FC-2 Framing and flow control defines the structure and organization of the
information being delivered and the methods to control and manage
information delivery.
• Framing and flow control includes:
- Exchange and sequence management
- Frame structure
- Flow control
- Class of service
Exchange sequence and frame management
SCSI SCSI SCSI
Read Write Update
Single
Exchange
1 Read 2.Write 3.Update
Frames
FC-1
FC-0 Port
Exchange & sequence management`
• Fibre Channel, there are almost no limits on the size of transfers between
applications.
• All commands coming from Upper layer protocols are mapped into a logical
constructs called “Information Units”.
• Exchange management is the mechanism that two fibre channel ports use
to identify and assign an exchange ID number for a set of related
information units.
• If the entire stream of data fits in a single frame (2112 bytes) a single
exchange id is created and a sequence number is assigned else data is put
in a sequence of frames.
Exchange & sequence management CONT’D
• Frame Structure has a start-of-frame delimiter ordered set and ends with an
end-of-frame delimiter set.
• The routing control INFO defines the content of the frame or identify the
function of the frame.
FRAME
S C E
O Header
Payload S O
F C F
4 24 2112 4 4
• Frame is sent thru the encoder (8b/10b), to the serializer (sfp/gbic) and
transmitted to the receiver port where it is deserialized, decoded and stored
in a receive buffer.
• The receiving port sends to the transmitting port a credit to send another
frame and decrements a credit from the credit value established during the
login session (buffer to buffer credit).
• Buffer credits regulate the flow of frames into and out of the fabric.
• COS 2 and F use R_RDY and ACK (end to end or EE_Credit) flow control,
each ACK received increments EE_Credit value
FC-Switch FC-Switch
2 2
END END
2
Credit Value 1
STORAGE
Ack
Class 3 Service
• Each frame routed separately by Fabric
• If multiple routes supported, frames might be delivered out of order
• Unconfirmed delivery of frames
• Datagram service
• Connectionless service with no turnaround delay to establish connection
• Buffer-to-Buffer (BB) Link level flow control
• ULP recovery from frame delivery failures
Buffer to Buffer credit/Receiver ready
• Frames are moved from one buffer to another using Receiver Ready
(R_Rdy) primitive signals
• Frame flow is always from the source buffer to the destination buffer
Buffer
Buffer
frame3
frame1
frame4 frame2
STORAGE
frame4
frame5 Receiver
Ready
Frame transfer between two buffers with different capacities in a fabric, takes place
.once the buffer at the destination is emptied and R_Ready signal is raised, once
the signal is raised, the buffer at the source, releases frames to the buffer on the
destination. Frame flow is controlled by the receiver as a back-pressure. This is
called “Receiver pack pressure mechanism”.
FC-3: Common Services
• This layer defines advanced features such as striping (to transmit one data
unit across multiple links)
• while the vital layer of communication FC-2 level concerns itself with the
definition of functions with a single port. The FC-3 level deals with functions
that span multiple ports. So this layer is theoretic but not in use.
FC-4 Upper Level Protocol (ULP) Mapping