FCoE initialization protocol (FIP)

Fibre Channel places extremely high demands on fail-safety, since storage networks must be absolutely reliable. For this reason, two protocols are used with Fibre Channel: one for data transport, another for securing the transport connection.

The FIP protocol for transporting Fibre Channel data is Fibre Channel over Ethernet( FCoE), while the protocol for securing the transport connection is the FCoE Initialization Protocol (FIP).

In the FCoE protocol, the Fibre Channel data is packed into an FC header and transmitted over a Lossless Ethernet. The second protocol, FIP protocol, handles, among other things, the login and logout of the Fibre Channel components in an FCoE network.