Short for
Fibre Channel over Ethernet, FCoE is a
standard for using the
Fibre Channel
protocol over
Ethernet
networks. FCoE is expected to enable
SAN traffic to
be natively transported over Ethernet networks, while protecting and extending
the investment enterprises have made in storage networks. FCoE uses Ethernet
cards, cables and switches to route Fibre Channel traffic at the
link layer, and uses Ethernet to transmit the FC protocol. FCoE
basically would enable organizations and
enterprises to continue to run Fibre Channel over the same wires as their
data networks. The goal of FCoE is to reduce management
complexity, reduce time to deployment, lower capital and operating costs and
lower power utilization.
The FCoE specification was submitted to the American National Standards
Institute by a group of storage vendors including Brocade, Cisco Systems, EMC,
Emulex, IBM, Intel, Nuova, QLogic, and Sun Microsystems. FCoE backs the
Convergence Enhanced Ethernet (CEE) specification, and as such it may also be
referred to as FCoCEE.
