Fibre Channel is a high speed serial interface using either optical or electrical connections (i.e., the physical layer) at data rates currently up to 2 Gbits/s with a growth path to 10 Gbits/s, and provides a general data transport vehicle for Upper Level Protocols (ULPs) such as Intelligent Peripheral Interface (IPI) and Small Computer System Interface (SCSI) command sets, the High-Performance Parallel Interface (HIPPI) data framing, IP (Internet Protocol), ANSI/IEEE 802.2, and others. The topologies supported by Fibre Channel include point-to-point, switched fabric, and arbitrated loop. This part of ISO/IEC 14165 defines an upper-layer protocol within the domain of Fibre Channel, that is designed to permit efficient peer-to-peer or client-server messaging between nodes, and to comply with the Virtual Interface (VI) Architecture. Vendors that wish to implement devices that connect to FC-VI may follow the requirements of this and other normatively referenced standards to manufacture an FC-VI compliant device.