Today, Fibre Channel is the most prevalent SAN technology, delivering extremely
reliable transfers via a low-latency block transfer protocol. Related interface speeds
range from 1.0 to 10 Gbps, and most setups are of a closed nature, implemented over
dark fiber. Given its specialized nature, Fibre Channel requires skilled technical staff,
yielding a high total cost of ownership (TCO). It is here that new ???IP/Ethernet-based???
standards are helping to open up this sector to improved economies of scale, namely,
Fibre Channel over IP (FCIP), which allows organizations to recoup their SAN investments
and extend interfaces over ubiquitous IP domains. Meanwhile Internet SCSCI
(iSCSI) and remote direct memory access (RDMA) move a step further by directly
implementing SAN-type transfers at the IP/Ethernet layer.
Fiber and WDM 225
IP/Ethernet-based storage will inevitably drive high-end EPL service growth. Namely,
EoF and EoWDM are much better positioned (versus EoS, EoMPLS, or EoRPR) given
the multigigabit speeds of most SAN interfaces. For example, many corporations may
consider lower-cost EoF solutions using Gigabit Ethernet FCIP (iSCSI) interfaces to
complement (replace) Fibre Channel in leased or owned-fiber scenarios.
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