CodingBox Documentation

Storage protocols & optics

Several protocols move storage traffic, and each pairs with a family of optics.

The main protocols

ProtocolRuns overTypical optics
Fibre Channeldedicated FC fabricFC SFP+/SFP28 (SW/LW)
FCoElossless EthernetEthernet 10/25G
iSCSITCP/IP EthernetEthernet 10/25G
NVMe/TCPTCP/IP EthernetEthernet 25/100G
NVMe-oF (RoCE)lossless EthernetEthernet 25/100G
NVMe-oF (FC)FC fabricFC SFP28/QSFP

FC vs Ethernet optics

  • Fibre Channel modules are FC-rated and labelled SW (850 nm MMF) or LW

(1310 nm SMF); rates are the GFC generations in Fibre Channel speeds.

  • Ethernet storage uses standard Ethernet interfaces such as 25GBASE-SR or

100GBASE-LR4 (see Optical Ethernet interfaces).

NVMe over Fabrics

NVMe-oF carries the low-overhead NVMe protocol across a network — over Fibre Channel, over RoCE on lossless Ethernet, or over plain TCP — to reach flash arrays with minimal added latency.

A module built for one fabric reports rates and interfaces accordingly; CodingBox shows those fields so you can confirm a transceiver suits the storage network.