- Ethernet fabric works via a protocol (set of rules/standards) called fibre channel. Fibre channel sets the rules for how a storage area network (SAN) is implemented in data centers. Fibre channel connects storage devices in a data center (where all data storage is centrally managed). Fibre channel frames are moved through an ethernet fabric. Networking and data storage are coalesced into an ethernet fabric. The purpose is to decrease the expense of traditional networking, as well as less memory and energy consumption required by adding new hierarchies for all network switches. With fewer adapters and switches, less power is needed to access data from an SAN. Cabling expenses are significantly reduced by networking everything to a singular ethernet fabric. The delivery of data across ethernet fabric is up to 10 gigabytes per second.
- The ethernet fabric consists of the physical ethernet cable carrying data packets (the fibre channel is enclosed in the ethernet frame, and the fibre channel IDs mapped to the ethernet MAC addresses). The difference between the traditional ethernet network (link-to-link setup) and the ethernet fabric (fibre channel) is the protocols used in the network. Ethernet fabric uses fibre channel networks, services and protocol layers. Data packets are transferred between ports via the ethernet fabric. Rather than routing data packets by linking ports (link-to-link), ethernet fabric allows the data packets to travel to all of the edge ports (edge-to-edge port connections) in the fabric of the network. In this way, port communication remission is decreased by microseconds.
- Maximum bandwidth is available to a network by the use of a fabric switch. The fabric switch consistently detects traffic congestion across ethernet fabric in micro seconds. The fabric switch redirects traveling data packets to paths along the ethernet fabric that are not congested (data packets are routed to unclogged paths in less than one millionth of a second). Internal facing ports and spine switches (and other link-to-link ports) are reflexively bypassed by the fabric switch (by default). Congestion remains a possibility, however, if the destination (receiver of the data packets) device is located beyond the physical parameters of the ethernet fabric. The edge port connections in ethernet fabric make paths along a network more visible to fabric switches. Unlike ordinary ethernet switches (which will issue an ethernet pause at the departure port due to low-traffic path visibility), the ethernet fabric switch has a global view of traffic paths, and therefore executes a pause command only for the affected resources at the admittance port.
