SAN FRANCISCO, CA – Nov. 20, 2012 – The Fibre Channel Industry Association (FCIA), a non-profit international organization of manufacturers, systems integrators and vendors, today announced the completion of the third 16 Gb Fibre Channel Plugfest and the ninth FCoE Plugfest, which was held during the week of Oct. 8th, 2012 at the University of New Hampshire Interoperability Lab (UNH-IOL).

Endorsed by the FCIA, this plugfest provided a forum where leading Fibre Channel vendors came together to collaborate on their respective FCoE and 16GFC products to ensure both interoperability and configurability between vendors.

Some key test points at the plugfest were:

  • Tested 16 GFC interoperability and backwards compatibility
    • 16 GFC to 16 GFC
    • 16 GFC to 8 GFC
    • 16 GFC to 4 GFC
    • 16 GFC to 10G FCoE
    • Cable infrastructure
  • Complex Infrastructures for FCoE including:
    • Multiple FCFs
    • Multiple DCB switches between Initiators and the FCF and between Targets and the FCF
    • High Availability including FCF fail over

“The Fibre Channel Industry Association and the University of New Hampshire have conducted more than 35 plugfests over 15 years of testing Fibre Channel technologies,” said Skip Jones, FCIA Chairman, QLogic. “FCIA is once again pleased and grateful to the University of New Hampshire for helping the Fibre Channel SAN community ensure that the latest Fibre Channel and Fibre Channel over Ethernet technology innovations yield the best possible end-user experience as these innovations come to market.”

The 11 participating companies included:

Amphenol
ATTO Technology
Brocade
Cisco
DCS
Emulex		 JDSU
HP
LeCroy
QLogic
SanBlaze

“As more products are released supporting 16 GFC and 10G FCoE, FCIA sponsored plugfests continue to allow participants to validate interoperability of FC and FCoE products including backward compatibility of FC products at 4GFC and 8GCF to new 16GFC products. With continued increases in speed including the upcoming 40G FCoE, this interoperability and backward compatibility allows customers to grow their storage infrastructure taking advantage of speed and functional improvements while leveraging current investment,” said Bill Martin, FC Plugfest Chair, Emulex.

About FCIA
The Fibre Channel Industry Association (FCIA) is a non-profit international organization whose sole purpose is to act as the independent technology and marketing voice of the Fibre Channel industry. We are committed to helping member organizations promote and position Fibre Channel, and to providing a focal point for Fibre Channel information, standards advocacy, and education. FCIA members include manufacturers, system integrators, developers, vendors, industry professionals, and end users. Our member-led working groups and committees focus on creating and championing the Fibre Channel technology roadmaps, targeting applications that include data storage, video, networking, and storage area network (SAN) management. For more info, go to https://fibrechannel.org.

About UNH-IOL
Established in 1988, the University of New Hampshire InterOperability Laboratory (UNH-IOL) is a non-profit organization that offers comprehensive interoperability and conformance-based testing through 19 technology-based groups, called consortiums. Test solutions created at the UNH-IOL offer a set of methods to increase interoperability through protocol operations, signaling, and point-to-point and multi-system scenarios. For more information, visit the UNH-IOL website at: www.iol.unh.edu.

The UNH-IOL also runs the Fibre Channel Consortium, a separate association of companies building new products and interested in testing them on an ongoing basis.

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Contact:
Chris Lyon
Executive Director
clyon@fibrechannel.org
Phone: +1.425.359.3326