The traditional Ethernet networks are optimized for best-effort traffic, tolerating frame loss, retransmission, packet collisions, and out-of-order delivery. While sufficient for most general-purpose data traffic, this behavior is inadequate for storage traffic, such as Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE), which demands lossless transport across the network.

To address this challenge, the IEEE 802.1 Data Center Bridging (DCB) standard introduces a set of enhancements that enable lossless, low-latency transmission of sensitive data types over Ethernet, making it suitable for converged data center networks.

Data Centre Bridging (DCB) is a set of enhancements for Ethernet that enables both LANs and Storage Area Networks (SANs) to utilize a single integrated infrastructure within a data center. The DCB technology enables the transportation of Fiber Channel, TCP/IP, and inter-process communication data across a unified Ethernet network.

For more details, refer to the Data Center Bridging Configuration section in the OcNOS Layer 3 Configuration Guide Release 6.6.1.