FCoE and NPIV

IxExplorer provides GUI access to all Ixia platform functionality with full support for stateless FCoE functional and scalability testing. The FCoE and Priority Flow Control (PFC) and FCoE Initialization Protocol (FIP) features allow testing of FCoE switches running both FCoE traffic and traditional Ethernet traffic.

Supported Load Modules

The following Ixia load modules have the Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) capability:

Data Center Mode

FCoE support requires a new port mode, Data Center Mode. You need to switch port mode between Normal Mode and Data Center Mode to use the desired features in each mode.

Priority Traffic Generation

The scheduling function is based on the existing Advanced Scheduler. A new parameter called `Priority Group' has been added to each stream. You can map Priority Group to the priority field in the frame. The priority field in the same stream should not change (for example, if the priority is a VLAN priority field, then you cannot configure a UDF to control this field within a stream).

Priority-based Flow Control (PFC)

The Ixia port responds to either IEEE 802.3x pause frame or to IEEE 802.1Qbb Priority-based Flow Control (PFC) frame. The flow control type is determined by the selection made on the Flow Control tab of the Port Properties dialog, in IxExplorer.

IxExplorer Reference

See IxExplorer User Guide, Chapter 6 topic Frame Data for FCoE Support, subtopic Priority-based Flow Control.

Fibre Channel over Ethernet

When the port is in Data Center Mode, both existing Ethernet frames and FCoE frames are generated.

The Fibre Channel CRC is generated on the fly. This CRC is inserted at offset of Ethernet frame size minus 12 bytes. For example:

Ethernet Frame Size (bytes)

2000

2001

2002

2003

FC-CRC Offset in FCoE Frame (bytes)

1988

1989

1990

1991

The FC-CRC can be set to No Error or to Bad CRC.

Packet View Support

For Fibre Channel frame, there is no Extended Header and Optional Header support. It decodes only FC-2 Frame Header field.

FCoE Initialization Protocol (FIP)

FIP (FCoE Initialization Protocol) has been implemented (in addition to FCoE). It is used to discover and initialize FCoE capable entities connected to an Ethernet cloud.

IxExplorer Reference

See the IxExplorer User Guide, Chapter 6 topic Frame Data for FCoE Support.

NPIV Protocol Interface

NPIV stands for N_Port ID Virtualization. These can be used to virtually share a single physical N_Port. This allows multiple Fibre Channel initiators to occupy a single physical port, easing hardware requirements in SAN design. Up to 256 N_Port_IDs can be assigned to a single N_Port. NPIV interfaces can be configured using the Protocol Interface Wizard.

See the topic NPIV Protocol Interface.in IxExplorer User Guide.