David, The first part of you question has perhaps a different answer than you "In other words" part. The first answer is it communicates the same way a FC adapter communicates with iSCSI based storage --- via FC to iSCSI gateways. The answer you maybe asking (in your Other Words part) is that it is possible for a smart NIC that supports maybe iSCSI, TOE, NIC, and even perhaps iWARP, to have another interface that supports FCoE. The FCoE part would send FC frames through the same NIC that was used by the iSCSI part, but the FCoE frames would be headed (without a gateway) to a different place then the iSCSI frames were headed. . . . John L Hufferd Sr. Executive Director of Technology jhufferd@xxxxxxxxxxx Office Phone: (408) 333-5244; eFAX: (408) 904-4688 Alt Office Phone: (408) 997-6136; Cell: (408) 627-9606 -----Original Message----- From: brown_David1@xxxxxxx [mailto:brown_David1@xxxxxxx] Sent: Thursday, April 26, 2007 11:49 AM To: ips@xxxxxxxx Subject: RE: FW: Recent comments about FCoE and iSCSI How would an FCoE-based initiator communicate with iSCSI-based storage? In other words, can the same host adapter be used for FCoE connections and iSCSI sessions, and if so, would the performance be similar? thanks, dj ________________________________ From: John Hufferd [mailto:jhufferd@xxxxxxxxxxx] Sent: Thursday, April 26, 2007 12:52 AM To: Sandars, Ken; Eddy Quicksall; Julian Satran Cc: ips@xxxxxxxx Subject: RE: FW: Recent comments about FCoE and iSCSI Ken, The term FCoE has as its primary component FC. Consider the possibility that the DCE Link from the Host connects to a switch/device that is able to deal with the FC part of the FCoE. . . . John L Hufferd Sr. Executive Director of Technology jhufferd@xxxxxxxxxxx <mailto:jhufferd@xxxxxxxxxxx> Office Phone: (408) 333-5244; eFAX: (408) 904-4688 Alt Office Phone: (408) 997-6136; Cell: (408) 627-9606 ________________________________ From: Sandars, Ken [mailto:ken_sandars@xxxxxxxxxxx] Sent: Wednesday, April 25, 2007 6:41 PM To: John Hufferd; Eddy Quicksall; Julian Satran Cc: ips@xxxxxxxx Subject: RE: FW: Recent comments about FCoE and iSCSI Hey John, [Hufferd] Many servers are asking for an evolutionary way to combine their Networking connections from the Server. The customers I have dealt with do NOT want to rip out FC, they want to provide a single Link for transport of all networking needs, including storage, exiting their servers. I'm not sure what you are saying here. Are you saying servers should have a single type of physical network connection, presumably ethernet? How does that align with not wanting to rip out FC? Thanks Ken _______________________________________________ Ips mailing list Ips@xxxxxxxx https://www1.ietf.org/mailman/listinfo/ips _______________________________________________ Ips mailing list Ips@xxxxxxxx https://www1.ietf.org/mailman/listinfo/ips