IP SANs: A Guide to iSCSI, iFCP, and FCIP Protocols for Storage Area Networks

2.3. Storage Networking Layers

A network is a complex of physical components and logical functions that must work together harmoniously to ensure data integrity and efficient delivery. The common reference for network architectures is the Open System Interconnection (OSI) model that defines a seven-layer structure for the most common network functions. As shown in Table 2-1, the OSI model partitions network processes into sequential functions that user data must traverse as it moves from the upper layer application to transport across the physical network. As the user data is passed down by an application for transmission across the network, it is wrapped in successive envelopes of information, roughly corresponding to the layers represented ...