optical fiber control (FC) (OFC)

Optical Fiber Control (OFC) is a safety system for controlling the injected light power into Fibre Channel optical fibers.

Since Fibre Channel uses both shortwave and longwave lasers, the level for the light power of shortwave lasers is adjusted to safety standards in the FC-0 layer. The OFC method is based on handshaking, in which the transmitter and receiver exchange light levels in a 10-secondprocedure.

The Non-OFC method offers a simple, cost-effective and reliable alternative to the OFC method due to the higher receiver sensitivity and the control of the light output of lasers. Non-OFC is mainly used in FC-AL, the Arbitrated Loop, since Optical Fiber Control (OFC) cannot be used in this FC topology due to the delay in the start-up procedure.