Brocade Glossary (53-1000040-03, November 2006)

28 Brocade Glossary
Publication Number: 53-1000040-03
Glossary
router See Fibre Channel Routing Services.
routing The assignment of frames to specific switch ports, according to frame destination.
RR_TOV Resource recovery timeout value. The minimum time a target device in a loop waits after an LIP before
logging out an SCSI initiator. See also E_D_TOV and R_A_TOV.
RSCN Registered state change notification. A switch function that allows notification of fabric changes to be
sent from the switch to specified SAN devices. The fabric controller issues RSCN requests to N_Ports
and NL_Ports, but only if they have registered to be notified of state changes in other N_Ports and
NL_Ports. This registration is performed using the State Change Registration (SCR) Extended Link
Service. An N_Port or NL_Port can issue an RSCN to the fabric controller without having completed
SCR with the fabric controller.
RTWR Reliable transport with response.
running
disparity
A binary parameter indicating the cumulative disparity (positive or negative) of all previously issued
transmission characters.
RW Read/write. Refers to access rights.
RX Receive. See also TX.
RX_ID Responder exchange identifier. A 2-byte field in the frame header that can be used by the responder of
the exchange to identify frames as being part of a particular exchange.
S
S_ID Source ID. Refers to the native port address (24 bit address).
SA Security Association. The collection of security parameters and authenticated keys negotiated between
IPSec peers. See also IPSec.
SAN Storage Area Network. Can consist of one or more related fabrics and connected SAN devices. Fibre
Channel is the most common protocol used in SANs because it was designed specifically for block level
networking to optimize performance and availability. See also fabric.
SAN
architecture
The overall design of a storage network solution, which includes one or more related fabrics.
SAN device Usually either a host or storage device that attaches to a fabric. A SAN device is sometimes referred to
as an N_port, NL_port, Nx_port, or node. For point-to-point devices (also known as N_ports) the
relationship is one switch port (also known as an F_port) to one N_port. For loop devices (NL_ports)
the relationship is one switch loop port (also known as an FL_port) to one or more NL_ports.
SAS Brocade Storage Application Services.
scalability The ability for a SAN to easily increase the port and switch counts.