SECURING FIBRE CHANNEL FABRICS - Brocade

FC Fabric Features and Servicesother method uses FCIP, shown in Figure 26, which is a tunneling protocolthat can be used to connect to sites over practically any distanceusing standard WAN connections.Site AServersServersSite BDark fiberStorageStorageFigure 18. Extended fabric using dark fiberImplementing dark fiber usually has the greatest initial cost if the organizationhas to lay the dark fiber or obtain a right of way to do so.Several providers, particularly utility companies, already have a darkfiber infrastructure in place and sell or lease strands of fiber to theircustomers. Although this option is less expensive than laying your ownfiber, it is still quite expensive.FC hostSite ASite BIP WANFCIPgatewayLANswitchWANrouterWANrouterLANswitchFCIPgatewayFC storageFigure 19. Extended fabric using FCIPWhen two separate fabrics at different sites are connected in a standardextended fabric, the link between the two sites becomes a longdistanceISL. Since two switches connected together using an ISLmust be part of the same fabric, the fabrics at each site merge to formone fabric. This is important to note given that both sites now share allof the fabric configuration information.Securing Fibre Channel Fabrics 43