At our last live FCIA webcast “Will You Still Love Me When I Turn 64GFC” our expert speakers, Dean Wallace and Barry Maskas, provided a technical session on T11 standards which define 64GFC serial Fibre Channel. It was a deep dive into backwards speed auto-negotiation compatibility, compatible form factors, and more, while having some fun [...]
Fibre Channel’s speed roadmap defines a well-understood technological trend: the need to double the bit rate in the channel without doubling the required bandwidth. In order to do this, PAM4 (pulse-amplitude modulation, with four levels of pulse modulation), enters the Fibre Channel physical layer picture. With the use of four signal levels instead of two, [...]
Protocol Analysis Expert Q&A A few weeks ago, the FCIA hosted a live webcast on Protocol Analysis for High-Speed Fibre Channel Fabrics in the Data Center. For those of us within the FCIA, we also referred to it as “Saving You SAN and Your Sanity!” Well, you get the picture. If you missed the [...]
The Fibre Channel Industry Association (FCIA) took on the topic of FICON (Fibre Channel Connection) in a FICON 101 webcast now available on demand. During the presentation, our experts Patty Driever, IBM; Howard Johnson, Broadcom and J Metz, Cisco, answered questions, some of which are presented in this blog. To receive more in-depth information, read [...]
The Fibre Channel Industry Association (FCIA) recently took on the topic of Fibre Channel (FC) Cabling in a live webcast. During the presentation, our experts Zach Nason, Data Center Systems; Greg McSorley, Amphenol Corporation and Mark Jones, Broadcom, answered frequently asked questions, some of which are presented in this blog. If you missed the live [...]
Interoperability is a primary basis for the predictable behavior of a Fibre Channel (FC) SAN. There are many dimensions to interoperability, from the physical layer, optics, and cables; to port type and protocol; to server, storage, and switch fabric operating systems versions; standards and feature implementation compatibility; and to use case topologies based on the [...]
FICON 101 Patty Driever – IBM Howard Johnson – Broadcom Limited FICON (Fibre Channel Connection) is an upper-level protocol supported by mainframe servers and attached enterprise-class storage controllers that utilize Fibre Channel as the underlying transport. Mainframes are built to provide a robust and resilient IT infrastructure, and FICON is a key element of their [...]
Today, there are a variety of architectures, fabrics, and protocols that can be utilized for Storage Area Networks (SANs). Because of this, the challenges in choosing the right approach, fabric, and protocol to optimize application performance are not trivial, nor are all the tradeoffs obvious when making such as choice. The choice of a [...]
Want to get up-to-speed on FICON? Here’s your chance. On June 19, 2018, experts from the Fibre Channel Industry Association (FCIA) will host a live webcast “FICON 101.” FICON (Fibre Channel Connection) is an upper-level protocol supported by mainframe servers and attached enterprise-class storage controllers that utilize Fibre Channel as the underlying transport. Mainframes are [...]
The FCIA recently took on the topic of Fibre Channel performance in our live webcast “Fibre Channel Performance: Congestion, Slow Drain, and Over-Utilization, Oh My!” If you missed the live event, it’s now available on-demand. During the live event, attendees asked our experts Earl Apellanes and Ed Mazurek a lot great questions. Here are answers [...]
