1

AoE initiator broadcasts an AoE  configuration string message to discover AoE target devices  on the network.  Initiators repeat broadcasts  periodically.

2

AoE targets respond with  available AoE device addresses.  This  identifies what storage volumes are available on the  network.

3

AoE initiator sends AoE messages  with unique tag identifiers and ATA disk commands.   AoE targets allow multiple AoE messages to be queued  enabling high performance.

4

AoE targets execute AoE messages  (disk read/write commands) and echo message identity tags in  the responses.

5

If no tag response is received,  initiator resends AoE message.  Ethernet  networks rarely drop frames, so retransmission is  rare.