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: A dynamic threshold apparatus and method are provided including a flow control sender and a flow control receiver. The 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. The 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: 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: 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.