DCE, CEE and DCB. What is the difference?
In one word, NOTHING. They are all three letter acronyms used to describe the same thing. All three of these acronyms describe an architectural collection of Ethernet extensions (based on open standards) designed to improve Ethernet networking and management in the Data Center.
The Ethernet extensions are as follows:
- Priority-Based Flow Control = P802.1Qbb
- Enhanced Transmission Selection = P802.1Qaz
- Congestion Notification = P802.1Qau
- Data Center Bridging Exchange Protocol = This protocol is expected to leverage functionality provided by 802.1AB (LLDP)
Cisco has co-authored many of the standards referenced above and is focused on providing a standards-based solution for a Unified Fabric in the data center
The IEEE has decided to use the term “DCB” (Data Center Bridging) to describe these extensions to the industry. You can find additional information here:
http://www.ieee802.org/1/pages/dcbridges.html
In summary, all three acronyms mean essentially the same thing “today". Cisco’s DCE products and solutions are NOT proprietary and are based on open standards.
Posted by Anthony Faustini at 01:29PM PST
Stuart Miniman Sep 10, 2008
The challenge that we have is that the proposals at IEEE DCB group have not been ratified, so what functionality is supported and by who? FC-BB-5 at T11 is a single standard, but IEEE DCB workgroup is looking at multiple features with different status and timelines.
I would agree that Cisco is heavily involved in creating and supporting the standards. Unlike the IEEE DCB standards website which has proposals and schedules, neither CEE or DCE have formal definitions.
Cisco came up with Data Center Ethernet term and since other companies can not use the term, they may call it proprietary (I do see the http://www.cisco.com/go/dce has some good detail on the In-Depth tab).
The definition of CEE is not defined on any website in a pre-standards deployment. There is room for confusion (and FUD) since the 4 Ethernet extensions that you list are being worked on the standards, but not all of them will be supported by all vendors at the same time or in the same manner.