FCIP: Sycnhronization

["Barry Reinhold" <bbrtrebia@mediaone.net>]

It is very difficult to write meaningful black box synchronization tests for
FCIP as currently defined. It also causes a window of confusion if there are
protocol errors in the PDU. I would like to propose the following definition
for synchronization, which I suspect was probably a starting point, in order
to understand why we have the current multi-option set of tests :

Test to be used to verify PDU synchronization within TCP stream:

Synchronization is defined by a valid length field (as currently defined)
that points to a valid EOF delimiter. The FCIP entity enters the loss of
synchronization state either at the start of the PDU or at the end of the
PDU.

One issue here may be that this requires the FC entity to be able to
transmit the frame on the Fibre Channel interface with a EOF indicating an
error.

Barry Reinhold
Principal Architect
Trebia Networks
barry.reinhold@trebia.com
603-868-5144/603-659-0885/978-929-0830 x138