The Cisco MDS 9000 Port Analyzer Adapter enables effective, low-cost analysis of Fiber Channel traffic anywhere in the network at any time. The device is a standalone Fiber Channel-to-Ethernet adapter that allows for simple, transparent analysis of Fiber Channel traffic in a switched fabric. Specifically, Fiber Channel layers FC-2, FC-3, and FC-4 may be examined without any network disruption. The FC-2 layer specifies the structure, format, and usage of Fiber Channel frames and defines flow control and classes of service. The FC-3 layer defines common service features like multicast. The FC-4 layer specifies the mapping rules for upper-layer protocols. The Cisco MDS 9000 Port Analyzer Adapter supports all Fiber Channel frame sizes. Additionally, EISL headers can be encapsulated to be included for analysis.The Cisco MDS 9000 Port Analyzer Adapter is a "plug-and-play" accessory for the Cisco MDS 9000 Family of Directors and Fabric Switches that enables the use of the Switched Port Analyzer (SPAN) feature. SPAN allows storage network administrators to view non-disruptively the traffic between two Fiber Channel ports on a Cisco MDS 9000 Director or Fabric Switch by replicating traffic to a SPAN Destination Port (SD-Port). The Cisco MDS 9000 Port Analyzer Adapter encapsulates the Fiber Channel frames from the SD-Port into Ethernet frames that may be analyzed using a locally attached PC.