FC-GS-3 is one of the Fibre Channel family of standards. This family includes ANSI X3.230, FC-PH, which specifies the Physical and Signalling Interface. ANSI X3.297, FC-PH-2, and ANSI X3.303, FC-PH-3, specify enhanced functions added to FC-PH. ANSI X3.289, FC-FG, and ANSI X3.321, FC-SW, are documents related to Fabric re-quirements. ANSI X3.272, FC-AL, specifies the arbitrated loop topology.

FC-GS-3 provides generic services that may be utilized by any upper layer protocol that makes use of Fibre Channel as a transport. These upper layer protocols are usu-ally called 'FC-4s'. Some FC-4s include ANSI X3.269, SCSI-FCP, and ANSI X3.271, FC-SB. Other FC-4s are under development to support data storage, server clusters, and audio-visual applications.