Since the introduction of iSCSI storage in 2004, the population of 1Gbit iSCSI storage arrays has grown to comprise almost a third of all disk arrays shipped each year. Connecting servers to all those 1Gbit iSCSI SANs requires only a generic port on a server LAN-on-motherboard (LOM) chip, or 1Gbit Ethernet NIC. No special Ethernet hardware or software is needed because IP networks don’t discriminate between NAS/SAN storage traffic and LAN traffic. That’s because the iSCSI protocol is transparently encapsulated into Ethernet packets, and only basic iSCSI-related network services exist.
Network Computing