Standards-Based Extensions to Ethernet Bridging

IEEE 802.1 Data Center Bridging is a collection of standards-based extensions to classical Ethernet. It provides a lossless data center transport layer that enables the convergence of LANs and SANs onto a single Unified Fabric. In addition to supporting Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE), it enhances the operation of iSCSI, network-attached storage (NAS), and other business-critical traffic.

Data Center Bridging is a flexible framework that defines the capabilities required for switches and end points to be part of a data center fabric. It includes the following capabilities:

• Priority-based flow control (PFC; IEEE 802.1Qbb)
• Enhanced transmission selection (ETS; IEEE 802.1Qaz)
• Congestion notification (IEEE 802.1Qau)
• Extensions to the Link Layer Discovery Protocol standard (IEEE 802.1AB) that enable Data Center Bridging Capability Exchange Protocol (DCBX)

Related standards-track activities are defining standards that compliment Data Center Bridging, such as equal-cost multipathing at Layer 2, which includes:

• Shortest Path Bridging (SPB) (IEEE 802.1aq)
• Transparent Interconnection of Lots of Links (TRILL) (IETF working group)

Cisco has pioneered and is leading the development of key data center bridging concepts and facilities within the IEEE, IETF, and ANSI T.11 standards bodies to develop and promote multivendor, interoperable data center solutions.