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576 Fabric OS Administrator’s Guide
53-1002745-02
Fibre Channel routing concepts
24
FIGURE 77 MetaSAN with imported devices
FC-FC routing topologies
The FC-FC routing service provides two types of routing:
• Edge-to-edge
Occurs when devices in one edge fabric communicate with devices in another edge fabric
through one or more FC routers.
• Backbone-to-edge
Occurs when FC routers connect to a common fabric—known as a backbone fabric—through
E_Ports. A backbone fabric can be used as a transport fabric that interconnects edge fabrics.
FC routers also enable hosts and targets in edge fabrics to communicate with devices in the
backbone fabric, known as backbone-to-edge routing. From the perspective of the edge fabric,
the backbone fabric is like any other edge fabric. For the edge fabric and backbone fabric
devices to communicate, the shared devices must be presented to each other's native fabric.
To do so, at least one translate phantom domain is created in the backbone fabric. This
translate phantom domain represents the entire edge fabric. The shared physical devices in
the edge have corresponding proxy devices on the translate phantom domain.
Each edge fabric has one and only one translate phantom domain to the backbone fabric. The
backbone fabric device communicates with the proxy devices whenever it needs to contact the
shared physical devices in the edge. The FC-FC routing service receives the frames from the
backbone switches destined to the proxy devices, and redirects the frames to the actual
physical devices. When connected to edge fabrics, the translate phantom domain can never be
the principal switch of the backbone fabric. Front domains are not created; rather, only
translate phantom domains are created in the backbone fabric.
Devices are exported from the backbone fabric to one or more edge fabrics using LSANs. Refer to
“LSAN zone configuration” on page 590 for more information.
Host
Target
Fabric 1 Fabric 2
FC router
E_Port
E_Port
IFL
IFL
EX_Port
Proxy host
(imported device)
Proxy target
(imported device)