Trace File Analysis in Fibre Channel over Ethernet Environment: A Step Ahead

Naina Chaturvedi

Abstract:

Enlightening a convergence of LAN and SAN engenders Fibre
Channel over Ethernet Technology as one of the significantly
important Ethernet Enhancements. Fibre Channel over
Ethernet being a storage protocol, is proposed mapping of
Fibre channel frames over existing Ethernet. Wireshark, an
open source traffic analyzer, captures the live packets and
provides detailed description of packet in the form of Trace
Files containing hexadecimal values. These hexadecimal
values represent the fields of frame format for the traffic it
carries. This paper enlists steps showing equivalence between
contents of the trace file and the fields of Ethernet Frame
Format.
We propose that in FCoE environment, similarly we can
co-relate our FCoE trace file and FCoE Frame Format. This
paper provides an approach which proves beneficial for all
those who wish to add their contributions in the world of FCoE
regarding the reserved fields in the FCoE Frame Format.
Mapping of trace file values with Frame Format fields will
clear understanding whether the fields represent Time stamp or
the length.