Local Area High Speed Networks

Fibre Channel Equipment and Topology

The communicating devices in a fibre channel network are very diverse. They can be computers, disk drives, printers, scanners, video output systems, and other systems. Because of the multiplicity of end-system types, the devices usually are referred to by the generic term nodes. A fibre channel adapter must be installed in each node that participates in a fibre channel network.

Standard fibre channel topologies include

• A simple point-to-point connection between two nodes.

• A set of nodes connected in a ring configuration that is called a loop, or, more formally, an arbitrated loop. As was the case for classic Token Rings, a loop often is implemented using a hub. Loop bandwidth is shared. Data transmission ...