RFC 3347 (rfc3347) - Page 2 of 26

Small Computer Systems Interface protocol over the Internet (iSCSI) Requirements and Design Considerations

RFC 3347      iSCSI Requirements and Design Considerations     July 2002


Table of Contents

   1.   Introduction.................................................2
   2.   Summary of Requirements......................................3
   3.   iSCSI Design Considerations..................................7
   3.1. General Discussion...........................................7
   3.2. Performance/Cost.............................................9
   3.3. Framing.....................................................11
   3.4. High bandwidth, bandwidth aggregation.......................13
   4.   Ease of implementation/complexity of protocol...............14
   5.   Reliability and Availability................................15
   5.1. Detection of Data Corruption................................15
   5.2. Recovery....................................................15
   6.   Interoperability............................................16
   6.1. Internet infrastructure.....................................16
   6.2. SCSI........................................................16
   7.   Security Considerations.....................................18
   7.1. Extensible Security.........................................18
   7.2. Authentication..............................................18
   7.3. Data Integrity..............................................19
   7.4. Data Confidentiality........................................19
   8.   Management..................................................19
   8.1. Naming......................................................20
   8.2. Discovery...................................................21
   9.   Internet Accessibility......................................21
   9.1. Denial of Service...........................................21
   9.2. NATs, Firewalls and Proxy servers...........................22
   9.3. Congestion Control and Transport Selection..................22
   10.  Definitions.................................................22
   11.  References..................................................23
   12.  Acknowledgements............................................24
   13.  Author's Addresses..........................................25
   14.  Full Copyright Statement....................................26

1. Introduction

   The IP Storage Working group is chartered with developing
   comprehensive technology to transport block storage data over IP
   protocols.  This effort includes a protocol to transport the Small
   Computer Systems Interface (SCSI) protocol over the Internet (iSCSI).
   The initial version of the iSCSI protocol will define a mapping of
   SCSI transport protocol over TCP/IP so that SCSI storage controllers
   (principally disk and tape arrays and libraries) can be attached to
   IP networks, notably Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) and 10 Gigabit Ethernet
   (10 GbE).






Krueger, et al.              Informational