HP Mainframe Connectivity Design Guide

Table 86 C-series FICON director extended fabric settings
SettingExtended fabric item
2 Gb/s, 4 Gb/s, 8 Gb/s, and 10 Gb/sSupported ISL port speeds
1 hopMaximum number of hops
300 km for DWDM (2 Gb/s, 4 Gb/s, and 10 Gb/s)
Maximum ISL distance
100 km for CWDM (2 Gb/s)
40 km for CWDM (4 Gb/s)
C-series FICON directors support up to 4,095 BB_creditsBB_credits
Consider the following when using C-series FICON directors with extended fabric ISLs:
• The MDS 9216i and 14/2 Multi-protocol Services Module can allocate up to 3,500 BB_credits
per port.
• The 4 Gb/s and 10 Gb/s Fibre Channel Switching Modules can allocate up to 4,095
BB_credits per port.
• The 16-port line card supports 255 BB_credits per port, which are available on a per-port
basis when the port is configured as a single link or ISL. When the port is part of a port
channel, the buffer credits are combined into the port channel's buffer credit pool.
• Port channels:
You can bundle up to 16 2-Gb/s links to form a single 32-Gb/s link.◦
◦ You can bundle up to 16 4-Gb/s links to form a single 64-Gb/s link.
◦ You can bundle up to sixteen 10-Gb/s links to form a single 160-Gb/s link.
◦ All port channel ISLs must be the same speed.
◦ All port channel ISLs must have the same distance and latency.
Multi-protocol long-distance technology
This section describes multi-protocol long-distance technology that is based on Fibre Channel
standards. FICON long-distance extension is product specific; not all Fibre Channel long-distance
technology applies.
FICON over FCIP
FCIP connects Fibre Channel fabrics over IP-based networks to form a unified SAN in a single
fabric. You can use FCIP for FICON extension and FICON SAN extension. FCIP uses IP-based
network services to provide connectivity between fabrics over LANs, MANs, or WANs. For FICON
over FCIP, HP recommends using MANs and WANs. LANs do not provide sufficient bandwidth
or QoS to support the demands of a FICON application.
NOTE: This section focuses on FICON implementations of FCIP (FICON over IP). For information
about Fibre Channel and FCIP, seeHP SAN Design Reference Guide.
FCIP mechanisms
An FCIP gateway encapsulates FICON frames into IP packets and transmits them through a tunnel
in an IP network. The IP tunnel is a dedicated link (or virtual circuit) that transmits the FICON data
stream over the IP network. On the receiving end, the FCIP gateway extracts the original FICON
frames from the IP packets and forwards them to the destination FICON device or director. The
gateway also performs IP-level error recovery, if necessary.
Multi-protocol long-distance technology 137