The iSCSI protocol uses TCP for its data transfer. Its' strength compared to other network storage protocols like Fibre Channel-SAN[?] etc is that, all it needs to operate is the simple and ubiquitous ethernet interface (Gigabit ethernet interface). This in turn enables centralization of storage without all the usual in-compatibility problems associated with various nodes on the network.
Critics of iSCSI expect iSCSI to perform worse than Fibre Channel due to the protocol overhead TCP/IP adds to the communication between client and storage. However new techniques like TCP Offload Engine(TOE) help in reducing this overhead. A Gigabit Ethernet NIC with a TOE offoads the host CPU from the network related processing and speeds up the data transfer considerably.
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