An American National Standard

This standard describes the requirements for an interconnecting Fabric consisting of multiple Fabric Switch elements to support the ANSI/INCITS Fibre Channel Framing and Signaling (FC-FS) and ANSI/INCITS Fibre Channel Physical Interface (FC-PI) standards. American National Standard Approval of an American National Standard requires review by ANSI that the requirements for due process, consensus, and other criteria for approval have been met by the standards developer. Consensus is established when, in the judgement of the ANSI Board of Standards Review, substantial agreement has been reached by directly and materially affected interests. Substantial agreement means much more than a simple majority, but not necessarily unanimity. Consensus requires that all views and objections be considered, and that a concerted effort be made towards their resolution. The use of American National Standards is completely voluntary; their existence does not in any respect preclude anyone, whether he has approved the standards or not, from manufacturing, marketing, purchasing, or using products, processes, or procedures not conforming to the standards. The American National Standards Institute does not develop standards and will in no circumstances give an interpretation of any American National Standard. Moreover, no person shall have the right or authority to issue an interpretation of an American National Standard in the name of the American National Standards Institute. Requests for interpretations should be addressed to the secretariat or sponsor whose name appears on the title page of this standard. CAUTION NOTICE: This American National Standard may be revised or withdrawn at any time. The procedures of the American National Standards Institute require that action be taken periodically to reaffirm, revise, or withdraw this standard. Purchasers of American National Standards may receive current information on all standards by calling or writing the American National Standards Institute. CAUTION: The developers of this standard have requested that holders of patents that may be required for the implementation of the standard disclose such patents to the publisher. However, neither the developers nor the publisher have undertaken a patent search in order to identify which, if any, patents may apply to this standard. As of the date of publication of this standard and following calls for the identification of patents that may be required for the implementation of the standard, no such claims have been made. No further patent search is conducted by the developer or publisher in respect to any standard it processes. No representation is made or implied that licenses are not required to avoid infringement in the use of this standard.