ACADEMIA

To achieve such convergence, the common underlying technology of choice would have to subsume all of the requirements of all the competing protocols. However, the various protocols used today are highly specialized and designed for specific networking purposes. The consolidation of network adaptors - and hypothetically networks in a data center - is possible only by integrating data center specific requirements into Ethernet. These modifications, which would apply to bridges and switches as well as end devices, add specific features to Ethernet that are already part of FC and other lossless protocols.

Data Center Bridging (DCB) is a collection of upcoming standards aimed at developing Ethernet to become a LOSSLESS, HIGH RELIABILITY layer 1/2 technology within large data centers. Overall, the standardization process for Enhanced Ethernet is still not finalized, so in the meantime, a variety of related technologies and solutions have been rolled out (DCE, CEE, - different vendor brandings of almost the same technology). All of these implementations claim to be a subset of Enhanced Ethernet, but how close to the final standard they will be, and what interoperability issues they will create, remains to be seen. The final success of FCoE and DCB is very much dependent upon the willingness of the different vendors to support the new standard as a common denominator – otherwise each vendor-specific implementation will remain a niche technology.