Fibre Channel over Ethernet: A beginners perspective

Fibre Channel over Ethernet is proposed mapping of Fibre Channel frames in existing Ethernet, a successful convergence of LAN and SAN. FCoE is not a replacement for conventional Fibre Channel but is an extension of Fibre Channel over a different link layer transport. The basic terminologies for FCoE are FCoE software Initiator and Target. Initiator of FCoE is the client requesting for the services like LUNs from target and Target may be server serving the Initiator's request by granting the requested LUNs and maintaining the initiator's session. This paper tries to provide a precise understanding of FCoE and a stepping stone towards the same. It also elaborates the concepts of the Linux kernel, its configuration and compilation intricacies. We have also tried to give a brief review about Fibre Channel, Converged Network Adapters and Storage Area Networks. The paper also throws light on the current research activities going on in this domain. We believe that this documentation is a good head start for those who wish to try their hands in FCoE domain.