iFCP as an IP Storage Work Item

["David Peterson" <dap@cisco.com>]

The iFCP proposal for encapsulating Fibre Channel frames should not be a
work item for the IP Storage working group.
This view is taken by Cisco Systems and Brocade Communications for the
following technical reasons.

1. FCIP is aligned with the existing FC-BB-2 work in progress.
2. FCIP will function with any existing/future FC-4 protocol such as
FCP/FCP-2, VI, SRP.
3. A native iSCSI device will provide the same functionality as a device
connected to an iFCP gateway.
4. Combining iFCP and FCIP does not make any sense since they are
implemented using two different routing planes. In addition, FCIP is a
tunneling protocol and requires mimimal processing of the Fibre Channel
frame. In contrast, iFCP is a gateway protocol and requires much more
processing such as the reading and modification of the Fibre Channel header,
augmentation data for specific Fibre Channel Extended Link Services, and
special handling of specific Fibre Channel Extended Link Services.
5. Existing Fibre Channel device addressing capability in conjunction with
FCIP is viable at this point in time.
6. Manipulation of N_Port ID's as specified in iFCP will make
debugging/analysis extremely difficult.

In summary, FCIP exists today and is well-defined. FCIP provides all of the
features
necessary to tunnel Fibre Channel over IP networks.  Similarly, iSCSI
provides the
capability for executing the SCSI command set over IP networks.  Creating
yet another
protocol, such as iFCP, is redundant.

David Peterson
Cisco Systems, Inc (SRBU)
Lead Architect - Standards Development
Office: 763-398-1007
Cell: 612-802-3299
e-mail: dap@cisco.com

Bob Snively
Brocade Communications Systems
Principal Engineer
Office:  408 487 8135
e-mail:  rsnively@brocade.com

Mark Bakke
Cisco Systems, Inc (SRBU)
Chief Architect
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