Abstract: A flow control sender includes an ingress port with one or more Class Groups (CG) defined including a shared buffer pool, a shared counter per ingress port per CG tracking an amount of the shared buffer pool utilized by each CG, an ingress port utilization counter per ingress port tracking an amount of the shared buffer pool utilized by the ingress port, and a controller computing a dynamic threshold for each CG, comparing the dynamic threshold of each CG with the ingress port utilization counter, and determining a particular CG experiencing congestion when the ingress port utilization counter is greater than the dynamic threshold for the particular CG. A flow control receiver ceases transmission of data packets to the particular CG experiencing congestion and allows transmission of the data packets corresponding to other CGs.

Abstract: An intelligent congestion feedback apparatus and method thereof includes a source endpoint transmitting data packets, and a destination endpoint receiving the data packets, and a timer in the destination endpoint set to zero. An intermediate node detects congestion between the source endpoint and the destination endpoint. Upon congestion detection, the intermediate node marks the data packets transmitted to the destination endpoint indicative of congestion. Upon receipt of the marked data packets, the timer begins reverse counting from a preset time value to zero and a feedback loop is turned-on between the destination endpoint and the source endpoint to transmit congestion notification (CN) messages to the source endpoint contributing to the congestion.

Abstract: An intelligent fabric congestion control apparatus and method are provided to receive data packets from source endpoints and output the data packets to destination endpoints. The apparatus and method include a counter, a timer, and a controller. The counter increments from a preset value when a data packet is received at an egress queue and decrements when the data packet is output from the egress queue. The timer starts timing in response to the incrementing of the counter from the preset value. The controller performs one of resetting the timer when the counter is decremented to the preset value prior to the timer reaching a first threshold, and detecting a persistent congestion when the timer reaches the first threshold.

Abstract: Various aspects of a method and system for transmission control protocol (TCP) traffic smoothing are presented. Traffic smoothing may comprise a method for controlling data transmission in a communications system that further comprises scheduling the timing of transmission of information from a TCP offload engine (TOE) based on a traffic profile. Traffic smoothing may comprise transmitting information from a TOE at a rate that is either greater than, approximately equal to, or less than, the rate at which the information was generated. Some conventional network interface cards (NIC) that utilize TOEs may not provide a mechanism that enables traffic shaping. By not providing a mechanism for traffic shaping, there may be a greater probability of lost packets in the network.

Abstract: A network device for selecting a port from a trunk group to transmit a unicast packet on the selected port. The network device includes at least one trunk group including a plurality of physical ports. The network device also includes a table with a plurality of entries. Each entry is associated with one trunk group and includes a plurality of fields that are associated with ports in the trunk group. Each entry also includes a hash field that is used to select bits from predefined fields of an incoming unicast packet to obtain an index bit for accessing one of the plurality of fields. The network device further includes transmitting means for transmitting the unicast packet to a port associated with an accessed one of the plurality of fields.

Abstract: A network device for selecting a port from a trunk group to transmit a unicast packet on the selected port. The network device includes at least one trunk group including a plurality of physical ports. The network device also includes a table with a plurality of entries. Each entry is associated with one trunk group and includes a plurality of fields that are associated with ports in the trunk group. Each entry also includes a hash field that is used to select bits from predefined fields of an incoming unicast packet to obtain an index bit for accessing one of the plurality of fields. The network device transmits the unicast packet to a port associated with an accessed one of the plurality of fields.

Abstract: Various aspects of a method and system for transmission control protocol (TCP) traffic smoothing are presented. Traffic smoothing may comprise a method for controlling data transmission in a communications system that further comprises scheduling the timing of transmission of information from a TCP offload engine (TOE) based on a traffic profile. Traffic smoothing may comprise transmitting information from a TOE at a rate that is either greater than, approximately equal to, or less than, the rate at which the information was generated. Some conventional network interface cards (NIC) that utilize TOEs may not provide a mechanism that enables traffic shaping. By not providing a mechanism for traffic shaping, there may be a greater probability of lost packets in the network.

Abstract: A service aware flow control apparatus and method for multiple classes of data packets. A flow control sender includes a buffer of an ingress port per Class Group or Class of Service (COS). A counter per COS tracks an amount of buffer utilization per ingress port per COS, and each counter comprises an XOFF threshold level of congestion and an XON threshold. A controller detects, during transmission of the data packets, a counter associated with a buffer for a particular COS has risen to be greater than or equal to the XOFF threshold level of congestion. A flow control receiver ceases transmission of the data packets to the buffer for the particular COS experiencing congestion and allowing transmission of the data packets corresponding to other COS in the flow control sender.

Abstract: Aspects of a switch fabric end-to-end congestion avoidance mechanism are presented. Aspects of a system for end-to-end congestion avoidance in a switch fabric may include at least one circuit that enables reception of a congestion notification message that specifies a traffic flow identifier. The circuitry may enable increase or decrease of a current rate for transmission of data link layer (DLL) protocol data units (PDU) associated with the specified traffic flow identifier as a response to the reception of the congestion notification message.

Abstract: A network device and method include token buckets, each token bucket associated with one of clients and virtual ports and configured to process information based on a predefined bandwidth and a strict priority/weighted deficit round robin. A maximum rate shaper module and a minimum rate meter module shape and meter whether any of the clients or virtual ports have exceeded a predefined threshold. A scheduler is configured to schedule services of the clients and to calculate a new bandwidth allocation for at least one of the clients or virtual ports when the at least one of the clients or virtual ports has exceeded the predefined threshold, the new bandwidth allocation replacing the predefined bandwidth and being proportional to the predefined bandwidth for each of the clients or virtual ports.