Method and apparatus for processing raw fibre channel frames

摘要

A method and apparatus for processing data frames using a networking device is disclosed. In one embodiment, a packet-over-SONET (POS) frame containing an encapsulated Fibre Channel frame is received by a protocol bridge. The POS header may then be stripped off and placed into a queue, while the encapsulated raw FC frame may be placed into a buffer of the protocol bridge. Hardware logic may then be used to generate and transmit a Fibre Channel frame using the previously encapsulated raw FC frame from the buffer. In another embodiment, a raw Fibre Channel data frame by the protocol bridge and then encapsulated into a POS frame and sent out on a POS interface. In one embodiment, this process may be carried in either a raw frame mode or an interleaved mode.