FIBRE CHANNEL PROTOCOL(FCP)
Tags: computerscience, network, beginners
Published: 2022-03-30 12:29:07

Fibre Channel Protocol (FCP) is the SCSI protocol using an underlying Fibre Channel connection.FCP (Fibre Channel Protocol) is a communication protocol (like TCP in IP networks) designed for the transmission of SCSI commands over Fibre Channel networks. In computing, Fibre Channel is a high-speed networking technology that uses high-speed optical fiber cables and serial copper cables. Computers, servers, and mass storage subsystems require faster data transfers, so FC technology was developed.

## A brief introduction to Fibre Channel
Fibre Channel is a network technology that specializes in data transmission at high speeds. Data is transmitted between storage, computers, switches, and data centres via the network. Within Fibre Channel, SCSI commands and information units are transmitted via the Fibre Channel Protocol (FCP). The point-to-point switched fibre, and arbitrated loop interfaces of Fiber Channel provide raw block data in an ordered manner.  
Fibre Channel can be connected using a variety of cables beyond optical fiber. For Fibre Channel, coaxial cable or telephone twisted-pair cables are suitable, but if copper is used, the distance should not exceed 100 feet. A network based on optical fiber can reach up to six miles in length if it is used for enterprise storage.

If the multimodal optical fiber is used as the physical medium, fibre channel devices can be as far apart as 10 kilometres (about six miles). Shorter distances do not need optical fibre. Besides coaxial cable, Fibre Channel can also be used with ordinary telephone twisted-pair cables. Copper cabling distances should not exceed 100 feet when using copper cabling.

    
## FC topologies are
DAS ( Direct Attached Storage)

NAS (Network Attached Storage)

SAN (Storage Area Network)

## Characteristics include:

1) The FCP protocol is the original SAN protocol

2) It differs from Ethernet at all layers of the OSI stack, including the physical layer because it uses dedicated adaptors, cables, and switches

3) SCSI (Small Computer System Interface) commands are sent over Fibre Channel Network by using FCP

4)In FCP, the addressing is handled by WWN (World Wide Names) and consists of 8byte addresses made up of 16 hexadecimal characters

5) It is lossless as opposed to TCP and UDP

6)They have the following format: 15:00:00:f0:8c:95:de

## Direct Attached Storage / DAS

Direct-attached storage refers to a type of digital storage system that is connected directly to a server or workstation without using a storage network. The term is used to define non-networked storage as opposed to SANs and NAS.

                        You can connect SAS, SCSI, or SATA drives directly to your system via SAS, SCSI, or Fibre Channel with directly attached storage raid and JBOD enclosures from Enhance Technologies and others. Generally, RAID enclosures come with a built-in RAID controller for raid storage setup and are OS independent.  

## NAS (Network Attached Storage)
A network-attached storage device (NAS) is a device that allows multiple users to access data from a centralized storage device over the network. The ethernet connection is used by the LAN users to access the shared storage.

Basically, it is designed for network systems that may process millions of operations per minute. Organizations, which require a reliable network system, can use this to support their storage devices. The disk is more economical than a file server and more versatile than an external drive.

## SAN (Storage Area Network)
Storage Area Networks (SAN) are high-speed storage networks that are managed centrally and consist of storage systems, storage management software, application servers and network hardware. Through these systems, users can access and utilize business information data. SAN storage platforms deliver raw data over a dedicated network connection to server infrastructure.