Gen 6 Fibre Channel technology is the next generation of Fibre Channel technology, and the Fibre Channel Industry Association has developed the Gen 6 Fibre Channel standard. Designed to address performance, reliability, and hyper-scale virtualization, SSD storage technology meets the scalability requirements of new data center architectures. The solution is expected to be widely available in 2016.
Gen 6 Fiber Channel technology doubles the throughput. 16Gbps Fibre Channel technology has a throughput of 3200MB/s, while the base channel of the new specification will provide 6400MB/s throughput in full duplex mode. In addition, the next-generation technology offers an option to quadruple 32 GFC to 128 GFC for a full-duplex rate of 25,600 Mbps, while also enabling seamless and backward compatibility based on Fibre Channel technology.
The new features of Gen 6 Fibre Channel technology mainly include:
-Forward Error Correction (FEC): Rely on automatic detection technology to significantly improve link reliability and achieve bit-level unit error recovery.
-High Energy Efficiency: Efficient energy use is achieved by allowing Fibre Channel optical connectors to operate in standby mode (or "nap"), completing multiple operations per second.
-Fully backward compatible: Existing 8GFC and 16GFC networks are fully compatible, ensuring that previous investments are protected, and they can be automatically provisioned between any two outlets at the fastest speed without any user intervention.
All relevant manufacturers have responded. Brocade said it would ship products in 2016, and Qlogic committed to shipping 32GFC kits in 2015. With 100G bps FCoE kits on the market and all viable standards in place, manufacturers may be keen to experiment and launch products faster.
The Fibre Channel Industry Association (FCIA) is a non-profit international organization. FCIA members include manufacturers, system integrators, developers, vendors, industry professionals, and end users. Members lead working groups and committees focused on creating And advocating the Fiber Channel technology roadmap, target applications include data storage, video, networking, and storage area network (SAN) management.
