Fibre Channel Protocol

• Performance from 266 megabits/second to 16 gigabits/second
• Support both optical and copper media, with distances up to 10 km.
• Small connectors
• High-bandwidth utilisation with distance insensitivity
• Support for multiple cost/performance levels, from small systems to supercomputers
• Ability to carry multiple existing interface command sets, including Internet Protocol, SCSI, IPI, HIPPI-FP, and audio/video.

• FC-0 -- The interface to the physical media
• FC-1 -- The encoding and decoding of data and out-of-band physical link control information for transmission over the physical media
• FC-2 -- The transfer of frames, sequences and exchanges comprising protocol information units.
• FC-3 -- Common services required for advanced features such as striping, hunt group and multicast.
• FC-4 -- Application interfaces that can execute over Fibre Channel such as the Fibre Channel Protocol for SCSI.

• N_PORTs—The end points for traffic.
• FC Devices—The devices to which the N_PORTs provide access.
• Fabric Ports—The interfaces within a network that provide attachment for an N_PORT.
• The network infrastructure for carrying frame traffic between N_PORTs.
• Within a switched or mixed fabric, a set of auxiliary servers, including a name server for device discovery and network address resolution.

• Arbitrated Loop—A series of N_PORTs connected together in daisy-chain fashion.
• Switched Fabric—A network consisting of switching elements.
• Mixed Fabric—A network consisting of switches and "fabric-attached" loops. A loop-attached N_PORT is connected to the loop through an L_PORT and accesses the fabric by way of an FL_PORT.