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Fibre-Host Topologies
The Fibre Channel standard supports three (3) separate topologies. They are
point-to-point, Fibre Channel Arbitrated Loop (FC-AL), and fabric switch topologies.
Point-to-Point: Point-to-point topology is the simplest topology. It is a
direct connection between two (2) Fibre Channel devices.
FC-AL: This is the most common topology currently in use. Fibre
Channel devices are all connected to a loop. Each device is assigned
an arbitrated loop physical address (AL_PA). The FC-AL supports 124
devices in a single loop.
Fabric: The fabric topology supports up to 224 Fibre Channel devices.
This topology allows multiple devices to communicate simultaneously. A
Fibre switch is required to implement this topology.
NOTE
If a logical drive has to be accessed by different servers, file locking, FC switch
zoning, port binding, and multipath access control will be necessary.
