RE: iFCP fabric attachments

[Charles Monia <cmonia@NishanSystems.com>]

Hi Venkat:

Please forgive the piecemeal response. 

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Venkat Rangan [mailto:venkat@rhapsodynetworks.com]
> Sent: Wednesday, December 13, 2000 6:01 PM
> To: Robert B. Harmon; cmonia@NishanSystems.com; ips@ece.cmu.edu
> Subject: RE: iFCP fabric attachments
> 
> 
> Robert,
> 
> I think when we combine the FCIP proposal and iFCP proposal, 
> you would get
> what you are asking for. That would provide connectivity 
> between FC switches
> using the FC B_Port functionality and IP FCP Portal connectivity. The
> integrated proposal needs to work on things such as Principal Switch
> selection, DomainId distribution among the FC switch across 
> islands etc.
> This is a combination of Fabric Controller and Name Server 
> functionality of
> FC-SW-2 and FC-GS-3 proposals.

<other material deleted>

The crux of the issue is that the iFCP gateway model supplants Fibre Channel
addressing, device naming and routing protocols with their IP equivalents.
The point of iFCP is to provide tranparency at the storage device ULP layer
while providing the gateway implementor with the freedom to build products
that mask or replace ANY type of FC infrastructure behind the gateway.

Charles