User`s guide

VIXEL INSPEED™ SAN STORAGE SWITCH MODEL 375 APPENDIX E GLOSSARY
USER’S GUIDE
EMBEDDED IN THE FUTURE OF STORAGE 69
APPENDIX E Glossary
AL_PA or Arbitrated
Loop Physical Address
A one-byte value used to identify a port in an Arbitrated Loop topology. The
value of the AL_PA corresponds to bits 7:0 of the 24-bit Native Address
Identifier.
Arbitration The process of selecting one respondent from a group requesting service at
the same time.
Close (CLS) An Arbitrated Loop protocol used to terminate a loop circuit.
Current Fill Word The fill word that the Loop Port State Machine uses when a fill word is to be
transmitted.
Duplex Cable Two fibers in one cable suitable for duplex transmission.
Fiber Optics Light transmission through optical fibers for communication or signaling
Fibre Channel Fibre Channel is a data transfer interface technology that maps several
common transport protocols including IP and SCSI, allowing it to merge
high-speed I/O and networking functionality in a single connectivity
technology. Fibre channel is an open standard as defined by ANSI and OSI
standards and operates over copper and fiber optic cabling at distances of up
to 10 Kilometers. It is unique in its support of multiple interoperable
topologies including point-to-point, arbitrated-loop and switching and it offers
several qualities of service for network optimization. With its large packet
sizes, Fibre Channel is ideal for storage, video, graphic and mass data transfer
applications.
LED Light-Emitting Diode. A status indicator on a switch.
Gb/s Gigabits per second.
Node An entity with one or more N_Ports or NL_Ports.
Open (OPN) An Arbitrated Loop protocol used to establish a loop circuit.
Protocol A data transmission convention which may include timing, control, formatting,
error detection with correction and data representation.
SCSI Small Computer System Interface. Standard interface for storage modules.
SFP Small Form-Factor Pluggable transceiver. These transceivers are fully
compliant with FC-PI and MSA standards and occupy less than half the board
space of the existing GBIC products.
Topology The logical and/or physical arrangement of stations on a network. Fibre
Channel topologies include point-to-point, Arbitrated Loop, and switched
fabric.
Transceiver A device that converts one form of signaling to another for both transmission
and reception. SFPs and GBICs are transceivers.