TABLE OF CONTENTS The FC-0 level is the physical link layer in the Fibre Channel architecture. Although its characteristics are well suited to optical fiber implementation, it is designed for maximum flexibility and allows use of several electrical technologies as well. Data transfer interfaces are defined for optical transmission over both single- and multi-mode fibers, with both lasers and LEDs, at both long (1300 1360 nm) and short (770 850 nm) wavelengths, and for electrical transmission over video coax, miniature coax, and shielded twisted pair cables. Transmission speeds are defined at 1.0625 Gbps, at half-, quarter-, and eighth-speed data rates, and recently at double- (2.125 Gbps) and quadruple-speed rates as well. This variety of possible technologies makes for a large range of customer and manufacturer choices regarding transmission medium, transmission distance, and price.
The FC-0 level converts 10-bit transmission characters at a transmitting Port into serialized transmission signals that traverse a cable plant to a receiving Port. A cable plant consists of optical fibers or electrical cables with associated connectors and/or splices for optical fibers and grounding mechanisms for electrical cables. The FC-0 level at the receiving Port digitizes and deserializes the received signal into retimed 10-bit characters to be passed to the receiving Port s FC-1 level.
The transmission signal is binary, with a two-state transmission signal. A digital b 1 is encoded relative to b 0 as either more optical power (optical fiber) or a higher voltage on the center conductor (coaxial cable) or higher voltage on the conductor labeled + (twisted pair...
