Fibre Channel vs. Fiber Optic Cables
Fibre Channel technology supports both fiber and copper cabling, but copper limits Fibre Channel to a maximum recommended reach of 100 feet, whereas more expensive fiber optic cables reach up to 6 miles. The technology was specifically named Fibre Channel rather than Fiber Channel to distinguish it as supporting both fiber and copper cabling.
Fibre Channel Speed and Performance
The original version of Fibre Channel operated at a maximum data rate of 1 Gbps. Newer versions of the standard increased this rate up to 128 Gbps, with 8, 16, and 32 Gbps versions also in use. Fibre Channel does not follow the typical OSI model layering. It is split into five layers:
FC-4 – Protocol-mapping layerFC-3 – Common services layerFC-2 – Signalling ProtocolFC-1 – Transmission ProtocolFC-0 – PHY connections and cabling
Fibre Channel networks have a historical reputation for being expensive to build, difficult to manage, and inflexible to upgrade due to incompatibilities between vendor products. However, many storage area network solutions use Fibre Channel technology. Gigabit Ethernet has emerged, however, as a lower cost alternative for storage networks. Gigabit Ethernet can better take advantage of internet standards for network management like SNMP.
