Flow Control Configuration

Flow control (802.3x) is a QoS mechanism created to manage the flow of data between two full-duplex Ethernet devices. Specifically, a device that is oversubscribed (is receiving more traffic than it can handle) sends an 802.3x PAUSE frame to its link partner to temporarily reduce the amount of data the link partner is transmitting. Without flow control, buffers would overflow, packets would be dropped, and data retransmission would be required.

All FastIron devices support asymmetric flow control, meaning they can receive PAUSE frames but cannot transmit them. In addition, devices also support symmetrical flow control, meaning they can both receive and transmit 802.3x PAUSE frames.

In this section:

  1. Flow control configuration notes
  2. Configuring Flow Control
    By default, flow control is enabled globally on all full-duplex ports.
  3. Displaying flow-control status
Parent topic: Basic port parameter configuration