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network; each device can use the full available bandwidth.
A fabric topology contains one or more switches connecting the ports in the
FC network. The benefit of this topology is that many devices (approximately
2-24) can be connected. A port on a Fabric switch is called an F-Port (Fabric
Port). Fabric switches can function as an alias server, Multicast server,
broadcast server, quality of service facilitator and directory server as well.
1.3.3 Basic elements
The following elements are the connectivity of storages and Server compo-
nents using the Fibre channel
technology.xe
Cables and connectors
There are different types of cables of varies lengths for use in a Fibre Chan-
nel configuration. Two types of cables are supported : Copper and optical
(fiber). Copper cables are used for short distances and transfer data up to 30
meters per link. Fiber cables come in two distinct types: Multi-Mode fiber
(MMF) for short distances (up to 2km), and Single-Mode Fiber(SMF) for
longer distances (up to 10 kilometers). The controller default supports two
short wave multi-mode fibre optical SFP connector.
Fibre Channel Adapter
Fibre Channel Adapter is devices that connect to a workstation, or server and
control the electrical protocol for communications.
Hubs
Fibre Channel hubs are used to connect up to 126 nodes into a logical loop.
All connected nodes share the bandwidth of this one logical loop. Each port
on a hub contains a Port Bypass Circuit(PBC) to automatically open and
close the loop to support hot pluggability.
Switched Fabric
Switched fabric is the highest performing device available for interconnecting
large numbers of devices, increasing bandwidth, reducing congestion and
providing aggregate throughput. .
Each device connected to a port on the switch, enabling an on-demand con-
Introduction
1-12
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