FCoE

Terminology FCoE Frame Format

Converged Network Adapter (CNA) Network Interface Card(NIC) 0 bit 16 bit 31 bit
that contains both Fibre Channel (FC) & TCP/IP Ethernet feature Destination MAC Address

Fibre Channel (FC) SCSI transport protocol that operates over

FC and works with dedicated lossless FC switches. Limited by
Source MAC Address
distance but well suited for latency sensitive and high I/O app
Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) Mapping of FC frames over IEEE 802.1Q Tag

Ethernet. Require Ethernet switch with FCF capability Ethertype = FCoE Ver Reserved

iSCSI SCSI transport protocol that operates over TCP and Reserved
encapsulate the SCSI command and data in TCP/IP byte stream.
Works with any Ethernet switch without distance limitation. Not Reserved

suitable for application with high I/O requirements Reserved SOF

FCoE Protocol (T11)

Encapsulated FC Frame (with CRC)
FC-BB-5 defines two protocols required for an FCoE fabric
FCoE Data Plane, carry most of FC frames & all SCSI traffic, uses EOF Reserved
Fabric Assigned MAC address (FPMA) with Ethertype = 0X8906
FCS
FCoE Initialization Protocol (FIP) Control Plane, used to login/out
from FC fabric and discover FC entities connected to an Ethernet Ethernet FCoE FC

CRC 4 bytes
EOF 4 bytes
FCS 4 bytes
FC Payload
Cloud, uses unique BIA on CNA for MAC with Ethertype = 0X8914 Header Header Header

16 bytes 16 bytes 24 bytes Up to 2112 bytes

FCoE Protocol Enhancement (IEEE)
DCB defined additional technologies to enhance Ethernet to Total 2180 bytes
support FCoE
FCoE Initialisation Protocol (FIP)
Priority Flow Control (PFC) - 802.1Qbb Enables lossless Ethernet Enode FCoE Switch
using PAUSE frame, CoS assigned to “no-drop” will be PAUSED Initiator FCF

Enhanced Transmission Selection (ETS) - 802.1Qaz Prevents VLAN Discovery VLAN Discovery
a single traffic class of a “bursty” nature to starve other classes by Solicitation FCoE
allowing to create priority group and guarantee bandwidth FCF Discovery FCF Discovery Initialisation
Advertisement Protocol
Data Center Bridging eXchange (DCBX) - 802.1Qaz Negotiate (FIP)
Ethernet capability’s (PFC, ETS, CoS) using LLDP with other DCB FLOGI/FDISK FLOGI/FDISK
capable device to simplifies management ACCEPT

FCoE Addressing Scheme FC Command FC Command FCoE

Responses Protocol
After FLOGI process FCoE ENode gets a Fabric Provided MAC
address (FPMA) for FCoE and use its regular MAC address for
Ethernet LAN traffic Step 1: FCoE VLAN Discovery FIP use native vlan to
sendout a multicast to ALL_FCF_MAC address looking
FCF switch is configured with a 3 byte FCoE MAC address prefix for the FCoE VLAN
(FC-MAP) and will provide FC-ID with FC-MAP to Enode.
Step 2: FCF Discovery FIP sends out a multicast to
ENode appends FC-MAP to FC_ID to generate FPMA address ALL_FCF_MAC on FCoE Vlan and FCF will respond back
FC-MAP (3 byte) + FC_ID (3 byte) = FPMA (6 byte) with their MAC Address

FCoE Port Types Step 3: Fabric Login FIP sends a FLOGI request to the
FCF_MAC found in step 2 and establish virtual link
FCF
between host and FCF (FIP doesn't carry any FC frames)
Switch
VE_Port VE_Port VF_Port VNP_Port
Fibre Channel Forwarder (FCF)
FCF VF_Port FCoE NPV FCF is the Fiber Channel switching element inside an
Switch Switch FCoE switch; Fibre Channel logins(FLOGIs) happens at
VE_Port Virtual Expansion Port VN_Port the FCF and it consume a Domain ID
VNP_Port Virtual Node Proxy Port End
VF_Port Virtual Fabric Port
FCoE encap/decap happens within the FCF and
Node
VN_Port Virtual Node Port forwarding based on FC information
Last update July 28, 2016 (version 1.00)
References: https://cloudpacket.net/bookmarks/ Prepared By Shakib Shaygan