PRACTICAL ROADMAP FOR DESIGNING AND DEPLOYING A SANFibre Channel has come into its own as the defining network architecture for Storage Area Networks (SANs), which are proving critical for managing the volume and complexity of data generated by Internet-era applications. Fibre Channel for SANs, by Dr. Alan F. Benner, shows you how Fibre Channel works, how it integrates with other protocols and systems, and how to implement it to create a SAN for fast access to mass storage. It walks you through the ANSI standard's 5 levels, from the physical transmission level through interfaces to upper layer protocols, and demonstrates mapping SCSI and IP over Fibre Channel. You get a wealth of timesaving illustrations and practical suggestions for troubleshooting. You learn how to:

*Build expertise in the standard used by ISPs for Web page storage, and by enterprise data centers for managing multi-Terabyte storage requirements

*Create bandwidth-sparing solutions for multimedia—voice, video, animation, music—and real-time video conferencing

*Implement logins and logouts, link services, error detection and recovery, flow control, and more