RE: FC encapsulation

["Raj Bhagwat" <rajb@lightsand.com>]

David,

The 'FC over IP' draft specifies how to encapsulate any FC frame with no
regard to what is inside the FC frame. BLS/ELS commands have regular FC
frame format (FT-1) with 24-byte FC header and optional payload. The things
'FC over IP' cannot encapsulate are primitive signals and primitive
sequences because they are not FC frames. These are meant for physical link
level operation only.

Regards,

Raj.

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-ips@ece.cmu.edu [mailto:owner-ips@ece.cmu.edu]On Behalf Of
Black_David@emc.com
Sent: Thursday, September 14, 2000 6:42 PM
To: dotis@sanlight.net; Black_David@emc.com; ips@ece.cmu.edu
Subject: FC encapsulation


Doug,

I think you missed the point ...

> The FCoverIP specification has already defined FC encapsulation.  Should
> there be  additional information required to transport an FC frame over
IP,

I suggest you reread Charles Monia's proposal for use of FCP formats in
iSCSI - this is the sort of thing that T10 is asking for, although the
request
is not for slavish adherence to FCP in all aspects.  This is fundamentally
different from the FC over IP approach of encapsulating SCSI in FCP in
FC-2 and then in an IP transport of some form.  It's not at all clear that
FC-2 is necessary in this context.

FWIW, the current version of FC over IP doesn't even encapsulate all
of FC-2.  For example, the ABTS basic link service used by FCP to
abort a SCSI task is missing.  I presume that this is an oversight that
will be corrected in a future version of the FC over IP draft, but I suspect
that this isn't the only basic or extended link service that needs to be
added.

--David

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