RE: FCIP/iFCP : Guarantee In-Order delivery for FC N/NL_ports

[Joshua Tseng <jtseng@NishanSystems.com>]

> 
> I have a question for the FCIP and iFCP folks. Do these 2 
> protocols still 
> assure in-order delivery of frames to the FC end nodes (N/NL_Ports) 
> when requested through the "Sequential Delivery" bit in FLOGI ?

TCP will deliver the FC frames in the same order that they were
passed to TCP by the FC network (FCIP or iFCP) or FC device (iFCP only).
As long as the FC network or device passes them in the right order,
TCP will do its part to keep the frames in the same order.

> 
> Can this assurance be made even while using multiple TCP 
> connections b/n 
> edge switch/routers ? 

This question is N/A for FCIP, since only a single connection
is specified between FCIP gateways.  In iFCP, a single TCP connection
is specified between each unique pair of N_PORTs.  Each gateway may
support multiple N_PORTs, but this will not interfere with frame
delivery order between each N_PORT pair.  So the answer to your
question is yes for iFCP.

Josh

> 
> - Santosh
> 
> -- 
> #################################
> Santosh Rao
> Software Design Engineer,
> HP, Cupertino.
> email : santoshr@cup.hp.com
> Phone : 408-447-3751
> #################################
>