Technical data

Glossary-8 Fabric OS Administrator’s Guide
Publication Number: 53-0000518-09
G
G_Port Generic port. A port that can operate as either an E_Port or an F_Port. A port is defined as a G_Port
when it is not yet connected or has not yet assumed a specific function in the fabric.
gateway Hardware that connects incompatible networks by providing translation for both hardware and
software. For example, an ATM gateway can be used to connect a Fibre Channel link to an ATM
connection.
GBIC Gigabit interface converter. A removable serial transceiver module that allows gigabaud physical-level
transport for Fibre Channel and gigabit Ethernet.
Gbit/sec Gigabits per second (1,062,500,000 bits/second).
Gbyte/sec Gigabytes per second (1,062,500,000 bytes/second).
GLM Gigabit Link Module. A semitransparent transceiver that incorporates serializing/deserializing
functions.
GMT Greenwich Mean Time. An international time zone. Also known as "UTC."
GUI A graphic user interface, such as Brocade Web Tools and Brocade Fabric Manager.
H
HA High availability. A set of features in Brocade SilkWorm switches that is designed to provide maximum
reliability and nondisruptive replacement of key hardware and software modules.
half-duplex A mode of communication that allows a port to either transmit or receive frames at any time except
simultaneously (with the exception of link control frames, which can be transmitted at any time). See
also “full-duplex”.
hard address The AL_PA that an NL_Port attempts to acquire during loop initialization.
HBA Host bus adapter. The interface blade between a server or workstation bus and the Fibre Channel
network.
header A Fibre Channel frame has a header and a payload. The header contains control and addressing
information associated with the frame.
HiPPI High-Performance Parallel Interface. An 800 Mb/sec interface normally used in supercomputer
environments.
hop count The number of ISLs a frame must traverse to get from its source to its destination.
host A computer system that provides end users with services like computation and storage access.
HTTP Hypertext Transfer Protocol. The standard TCP/IP transfer protocol used on the World Wide Web.
hub A Fibre Channel wiring concentrator that collapses a loop topology into a physical star topology. Nodes
are automatically added to the loop when active and removed when inactive.