FICON
FICON (Fibre Connection) is the IBM proprietary name for the ANSI FC-SB-3 Single-Byte Command Code Sets-3 Mapping Protocol for Fibre Channel (FC) protocol. It is a FC layer 4 protocol used to map both IBM's antecedent (either ESCON or parallel Bus and Tag) channel-to-control-unit cabling infrastructure and protocol onto standard FC services and infrastructure. The topology is fabric utilizing FC switches or directors. Valid rates include 1, 2, 4, 8 and 16 Gigabit per second data rates at distances up to 100 km.
| Fibre Channel | |
|---|---|
| Layer 4. Protocol mapping | |
| LUN masking | |
| Layer 3. Common services | |
| Layer 2. Network | |
| Fibre Channel fabric Fibre Channel zoning Registered state change notification | |
| Layer 1. Data link | |
| Fibre Channel 8b/10b encoding | |
| Layer 0. Physical |
FICON was introduced in 1998 as part of fifth generation of IBM System/390 mainframes. After 2011 FICON replaced ESCON in new IBM mainframe deployments because of FICON's technical superiority (especially its higher performance) and lower cost.