Fibre Channel (FC) is the datacenter standard for storage area networks and enterprise storage, and evolves continuously since its ratification in 1994. Following are some of the latest Fibre Channel Advances. To read more about FC Advances, order our latest book, available for order at: http://www.fibrechannel.org/FCIA_Advances.html.

Enhancing Server and Storage Consolidation and Utilization

Three FC standards support the recently prevalent trend to deploy and virtualize large numbers of small servers & modular storage, rather than large frame arrays, to serve core and departmental application workloads:

• N-port ID virtualization (NPIV)
• Inter-Fabric Routing (IFR)
• FC Serial ATA (FC-SATA).

Server virtualization consolidates multiple server images into a single virtual machine environment. In Storage Area Network (SAN) environments, I/O requests created by virtual machines use a single pool of HBAs and FC addresses, which limits resource scalability and prioritisation for the virtual machines. NPIV (FC-LS, FC-DA, FC-GS-4; 2006), supported with 4Gb SAN infrastructure, enables HBA sharing within the virtual machine environments, allowing each virtual machine to control its own SAN access. With NPIV, an individual HBA can register multiple Worldwide Port Numbers with FC switches supporting NPIV, increasing HBA/server utilisation and scalability, and enabling faster provisioning. NPIV, which is transparent to storage systems, is supported by leading HBA and FC switch vendors today, and in an increasing number of host operating system environments.

Inter-Fabric Routing (FC-IFR; 2007) enables FC devices to communicate with each other while located on different fabrics. IFR enables this communication without merging the two fabrics, enabling the fabric operation to be isolated. IFR allows storage administrators to share storage devices between fabrics, supporting horizontal scaling among multiple fabrics, users and locations. IFR also supports integrating disparate SAN fabrics from multiple vendors.

FC-SATA is a mechanism to enable application-specific tiering to provide storage administrators with cost versus reliability and performance levers. Ratified in April 2007, FC-SATA maps the Serial ATA storage interface protocol to FC. This enables SATA drives to be connected directly to FC infrastructures without the need for bridges that convert between the FC and SATA protocols. Storage administrators then have an additional option in applying specific application workloads to the most cost-effective drive type, and could, for example, leverage SATA drives for applications that require high capacity without FC-drive-levels of reliability and performance. FC-SATA is expected to be enabled via selected FC switches and I/O controllers.

Protecting Enterprise Infrastructure Investments

The 8 Gigabit Fibre Channel (8GFC) specification has reached the first stage of technical stability and is scheduled for ratification around December 2007. The 8GFC specification supports the increasing I/O and bandwidth needs of industries like financial services, government, healthcare and oil and gas, where modelling and analytics and fast access to stored digital images are required, as well as critical enterprise workloads, such as decision support and transactional databases. 8GFC will be backward compatible and automatic speed negotiation to 4GFC and 2GFC. Note that the vast majority of deployed 1GFC products are expected to have been retired by the end of 2008, and alternative bridging configurations may be used to connect remaining legacy 1GFC devices to the SAN. Beyond 8GFC, the FCIA and T11 Technical Committee are developing the 16GFC specification for 2009 (2011 expected commercial products), and have a roadmap delivering 2x-link improvements through 128GFC.

Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE), an emerging specification proposed in April 2007, is an example of continued innovation that could enhance investments in FC-based architectures, resource knowledge and business solutions. Efforts are underway at IEEE 802 to implement optional Ethernet extensions that would enable Ethernet switches to protect against discarding frames, as FC switches do with buffer-to-buffer credits, in order to enable the mapping of FC frames.

Security & Manageability:

The FC Simplified Configurations and Management (FC-SCM) proposal is one effort in the industry to extend the value of FC into additional segments and applications by simplifying management and interoperability for users without significant FC skills. The FC Security Protocol is approaching ratification and will deliver security options beyond traditional physical isolation.

The FC-SCM proposal aims to simplify installation, management and operation of FC ecosystem components. Where capabilities such as the Storage Management Initiative Specification (SMI-S) standard developed by the Storage Networking Industry Association address interoperability between heterogeneous storage systems, FC-SCM is targeted at the management and interoperability needs of small and medium enterprises and departmental applications, where FC infrastructure may not be as pervasive.

The FC Security Protocol (FC-SP) addresses data security and integrity in transit within the FC network. FC-SP is a security framework that includes authentication mechanisms for FC devices, cryptographically secure key exchange and data communication, and policies. FC-SP, and its successor FC-SP-2, aim to bolster FC security by preventing fibre eavesdropping via cable-intrusive methods such as compression and tapping within and between data centres. The FC-SP-2 proposal addresses support of Inter-Fabric Routing. Elements of the FC-SP framework, such as authentication, are coming to market in HBA vendor drivers in the second half of 2007, enabling staged qualification with switch and storage infrastructure, and fuller standard support expected beginning in 2008.