NVMe-oF
also: NVMe over Fabrics, NVMe/TCP, NVMe/RDMA, NVMe/FC
NVMe over Fabrics (NVMe-oF) is a protocol that enables NVMe storage devices to be accessed over a network rather than directly attached to a local PCIe bus, allowing remote storage connectivity.
NVMe-oF extends the NVMe protocol beyond local PCIe connections, allowing NVMe commands to be transmitted over network transports like Ethernet (NVMe/TCP), InfiniBand (NVMe/RDMA), or Fibre Channel (NVMe/FC). This enables servers to access fast NVMe storage remotely as if it were locally attached.
Common transport mechanisms include NVMe/TCP for standard Ethernet networks, NVMe/RDMA for low-latency InfiniBand connections, and NVMe/FC for existing Fibre Channel infrastructure. The protocol maintains NVMe's low-latency characteristics while enabling storage to be shared across multiple hosts.
Example use case: a data center might configure a high-speed NVMe storage array accessible via NVMe/RDMA to multiple compute servers, providing fast shared storage without the complexity of older protocols like iSCSI.