 the magnitude of bridge-traffic load that can be expected in protocol mediation devices. It is also interesting to see how the FCIA compares the Fibre Channel with alternative technolo- gies. Table 11.1 provides a comparison that was compiled by FCIA. This table shows how the Fibre Channel technology stacks up against Gigabit Ethernet and Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM). have deliberately placed question marks next to some parameters in order to call attention to their questionable importance. Part of the industry decided to pursue the investigation of establishing new combinations of SCSI-like techniques with TCP/IP over Ethernet (1 GbE and 10 GbE) networks to control the cost of ownership. Downloaded from Digital Engineering Library @ McGraw-Hill (www.digitalengineeringlibrary.com) Copyright © 2004 The McGraw-Hill Companies. All rights reserved. Any use is subject to the Terms of Use as given at the website. STORAGE NETWORK PROCESSORS (SNPS) NETWORK PROCESSORS TABLE 11.1 A Comparison between Fibre Channel and Alternative Technologies¹ (Source: FCIA) Fibre Channel Gigabit Ethernet Technology Storage, network, Network Network and video application video, and clusters Topologies Point-to-point, loop Point-to-point hub Switched hub, and switched and switched Baud rate 1.06 Gbps and 1.25 Gbps 622 Mbps 2.12 Gbps Scalability to higher 4.24 Gbps Not defined (?) 1.24 Gbps data rates Guaranteed delivery No (?) Congestion data loss Yes (?) Frame size Variable and 0 to 2KB Variable and 0 to 1.5KB Fixed and 53 bytes Flow control Credit based Rate based (?) Rate based Physical media Copper and fiber Copper and fiber Copper and fiber Protocols supported Network, SCSI, and video Network (?) Network and video A quick overview of the parameters shows that the arguments from the IP storage camp do have merits: TCP adds reliability of delivery. 10 Gigabit Ethernet is already two to four times faster today than what Fibre Channel will soon be. IP is a well-known protocol that people know how to config- ure, route, switch, manage,