Fibre Channel: leveraging a commercial networking technology for military applications

Abstract

The emerging adoption of Fibre Channel will enable the military to leverage the work of over 80 commercial companies involved in the development of the Fibre Channel ANSI standard. Beyond that, there are nearly two dozen companies participating on the FC-AE (Fibre Channel for Avionics Environment) subcommittee. Currently, Fibre Channel provides 100 MB/s bandwidth over copper or optical media. Other salient features of Fibre Channel include multiple topologies, including point-to-point, arbitrated loop, or switched fabric; end-to-end latencies on the order of 10 /spl mu/s; multiple classes of service, including non-guaranteed delivery, guaranteed delivery, and quality of service (QoS); multiple options for flow control; a mechanism for message prioritizing; and a time distribution service. As a means of providing portability for many types of applications, Fibre Channel is able to leverage multiple ULPs (Upper Layer Protocols), including IF, SCSI, and VIA (Virtual Interface Architecture). In particular, VIA, a relatively new standard developed by Microsoft, Intel, and Compaq, provides a lightweight, high-performance protocol that's particularly well suited for the distributed processor environment. In comparison with other upper layers, VIA provides a lean stack architecture that supports both high bandwidth and low latency messaging by providing a doorbell type interface enabling very fast initiation of message transmission; a means for message prioritizing; and a high degree of hardware and firmware assist to minimize the need for computational resources by allowing for streamlined code size, reducing the number of data copies, and eliminating the need for processor checksum calculations.