FCoE does NOT Mean the End of Fibre Channel and InfiniBand

Today, servers in the data center typically have two to three network cards. Each adapter attaches to a different element of the data center—one supports storage over Fibre Channel, a second for Ethernet networking, and a third card for clustering, which is probably InfiniBand. Data center managers must then deal with multiple networks. A single network that could address all of these applications would greatly simplify administration within the data center.

Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) is one approach that has been proposed to accomplish this goal. It is a planned mapping of Fibre Channel frames over full duplex IEEE 802.3 Ethernet networks. Fibre Channel will leverage 10-Gigabit Ethernet networks while preserving the Fibre Channel protocol. For this to work, Ethernet must first be modified so that it no longer drops or reorders packets, an outcome of the array of CEE standards in development (IEEE 802.1p and IEEE 802.1q.)

With the implementation of FCoE, data centers would realize:


• Reduced number of server network cards and interconnections
• Simplified network
• Leveraging of the best of Fibre Channel, Ethernet and installed base of cabling
• Minimum of 10G network card on each network element


For this to work, the various applications would be collapsed to one converged network adapter (CNA) in an FCoE/CEE environment.

While this would greatly simplify the data center environment, it still seems too costly to implement in every network element – one CNA with an SFP+ port costs upwards of $1200, while the total of three separate one, two and 2.5 Gigabit ports still cost less than $600. This is one of the main reasons that FCoE/CEE will only be deployed where the flexibility that it provides makes sense – which is most likely at servers on the edge of the SAN.