ATTO Technology 3400 - Manual (Page 6)

1 ATTO FibreCenter 3400 Ins tallation and Operation Manual
1 Fibre Channel is a key technology for storage
Fibre Channel is a serial communications technology designed to transfer large amounts of data
between a variety of hardware systems over long distances. It is a key technology for applications that
require shared, high bandwidth access to storage.
Fibre Channel provides a logical point-to point
serial channel for the transfer of data between a
buffer at a source device and a buffer at a
destination device. It moves buffer contents from
one port to another, without regard to the format
or meaning of the data, so different upper level
protocols are able to run over Fibre Channel
hardware.
The Fibre Channel architecture is structured as a
hierarchical set of protocol layers. Defined within
these layers are rules for signal interfaces, serial
encoding and decoding, error control, frame
format and communications protocols.
A SAN is a shared storage architecture connecting
computers and storage devices for online data
access. Each connected system can directly access
any attached storage device. Storage devices
could include RAID, tape backup, tape library,
CD-ROM library or JBOD.
SANs maintain greater fault tolerance and load
balancing by supporting server clustering and
failover (the ability for one server to take over for
another in the event of a failure).
The ATTO FibreCenter™ 3400 hub integrates
industry-leading performance and Storage Area
Network capabilities into mid-range applications.
Glossary
Some terms used in the Fibre Channel industry are defined below. More information is available through
the Fibre Channel Industry Association (www.fibrechannel.com), the Storage Area Networking Industry
Association (www.snia.org) and the Fibre Channel Consortium (www.iol.unh.edu).
Term Definition
firmware Software stored in read-only memory (ROM) or programmable ROM (PROM).
Firmware is often responsible for the behavior of a system when it is first switched
on.
FC-AL Fibre Channel Arbitrated Loop: A Fibre Channel network in which up to 126
nodes are connected in a loop topology, with each transmitter connecting to the
receiver of the device to its logical right. The Fibre Channel Arbitrated Loop
protocol used for transmission is different from Fibre Channel switched and point
to point protocols. Multiple FC-AL loops can be connected via a fabric switch to
extend the network.
FL-port A port in the Fibre Channel fabric where an NL_port may attach in an arbitrated
loop.
hub A device which provides a common connection to devices on a Fibre Channel
Arbitrated Loop
initiator device A component which originates a command