Fabric OS Administrator's Guide v6.4.0 (53-1001763-01, June 2010)

Fabric OS Administrator’s Guide 69
53-1001763-01
Gateway links
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FIGURE 8 Virtual Channels on an 8 Gbps ISL
Gateway links
A gateway merges SANs into a single fabric by establishing point-to-point E_Port connectivity
between two Fibre Channel switches that are separated by a network with a protocol such as IP or
SONET.
Except for link initialization, gateways are transparent to switches; the gateway simply provides
E_Port connectivity from one switch to another. Figure 9 shows two separate SANs, A-1 and A-2,
merged together using a gateway.