RFC 3643 (rfc3643) - Page 2 of 20

Fibre Channel (FC) Frame Encapsulation

RFC 3643                 FC Frame Encapsulation            December 2003


Table Of Contents

   1.  Scope. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  2
   2.  Encapsulation Concepts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  3
   3.  The FC Encapsulation Header. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  4
       3.1.  FC Encapsulation Header Format . . . . . . . . . . . . .  4
       3.2.  FC Encapsulation Header Validation . . . . . . . . . . .  7
             3.2.1.  Redundancy Based FC Encapsulation
                     Header Validation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  7
             3.2.2.  CRC Based FC Encapsulation Header Validation . .  7
   4.  Measuring Fibre Channel Frame Transit Time . . . . . . . . . .  8
   5.  The FC Frame . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
       5.1.  FC Frame Content . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
       5.2.  Bit and Byte Ordering. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
       5.3.  FC SOF and EOF . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
   6.  Security Considerations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
   7.  References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
       7.1.  Normative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
       7.2.  Informative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
   8.  Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
   Appendix
   A  Fibre Channel Bit and Byte Numbering Guidance . . . . . . . . . 15
   B  Encapsulating Protocol Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
   C  IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
   D  Intellectual Property Rights Statement. . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
   Authors' Addresses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
   Full Copyright Statement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

1.  Scope

   This document describes common mechanisms for the transport of Fibre
   Channel frames over an IP network, including the encapsulation format
   and a mechanism for enforcing the Fibre Channel frame lifetime
   limits.

   Warning to Readers Familiar With Fibre Channel: Both Fibre Channel
   and IETF standards use the same byte transmission order. However, the
   bit and byte numbering is different.  See Appendix A for guidance.

   The organization responsible for the Fibre Channel standards (INCITS
   Technical Committee T11) has determined that some functions and modes
   of operation are not interoperable to the degree required by the IETF
   (see FC-MI [8]).  This document includes applicable T11
   interoperability determinations in the form of restrictions on the
   use of this encapsulation mechanism.






Weber, et al.               Standards Track