User:LampGenie01/Too technical sandbox
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Internet Fibre Channel Protocol (iFCP) is a network protocol standard that provides functionality to Fibre Channel devices over an IP network. It is officially ratified by the Internet Engineering Task Force.
Technical overview
[edit]The iFCP protocol enables the implementation of Fibre Channel functionality over an IP network, within which the switching and routing infrastructure is replaced by IP technology. Congestion control, error detection and recovery are provided through the use of the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP). The primary objective of iFCP is to allow existing Fibre Channel devices to be networked and interconnected over an IP network.
Due to the address translation used, the protocol allows storage devices and host adapters to be attached to an IP based network using transparent gateways.
The iFCP protocol layer's main function is to transport Fibre Channel frame images between both local and remote Fibre Channel ports. iFCP uses a predetermined TCP connection to encapsulate and route the fibre channel frames across the IP network when they are being transported to a remote fibre channel port.