Internet and Management Support for Storage
charter-ietf-imss-04

Fibre Channel is a high speed network technology primarily used for
storage networking (i.e., Storage Area Networks [SANs]). Two
important aspects of Fibre Channel interact with the Internet:
- Fibre Channel can encapsulate and carry IP protocol traffic
- Fibre Channel devices can be managed via SNMP

The Internet and Management Support for Storage WG (imss) is chartered
to address two areas, specifically:
- IPv4 over Fibre Channel has been specified in RFC 2625. A
corresponding specification for IPv6 is needed.
- An initial Fibre Channel Management MIB has been developed by
the IP Storage (ips) WG; extensions are needed to encompass
management of additional aspects of Fibre Channel, such
as zoning.

In the future, other storage related MIBs for other storage transports
such as INCITS T10 Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) or SCSI command specific
MIBs may be proposed. This group would work with the appropriate
technical committee(s) in a manner similar to that described for
INCITS
T11 below.

As Fibre Channel standardization is handled by the INCITS T11 Technical
Committee (http://www.t11.org), a close working relationship with T11
is essential to the WG's success. In particular:
- The IPv6 over Fibre Channel specification will be based on
draft-desanti-ipv6-over-fibre-channel-02.txt. This draft
was originally developed within a T11 study group and T11
has officially recommended this draft to the IETF.
- The WG will not standardize management of Fibre Channel
features ahead of their incorporation into appropriate T11
Fibre Channel standards.
- The WG will work closely with T11, specifically Task Group
T11.5, on the functionality and structure of the MIBs it
develops for management of Fibre Channel.

In addition to working closely with the INCITS T11 Technical
Committee,
this Working Group will work closely with IETF IPv6 Working Group as
appropriate. In particular, the IPv6 Working Group will be kept
informed on the progress and status of the IPv6 over Fibre Channel
specification. The IMSS Working Group Last Call announcement will be
cross-posted to the IPv6 WG mailing list.