Configuring Flow Control for all Ports

Flow control (IEEE 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 IEEE 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 ICX devices support asymmetric flow control, which means they can receive PAUSE frames but cannot transmit them. In addition, devices also support symmetrical flow control, which means they can both receive and transmit IEEE 802.3x PAUSE frames.

Complete the following steps to configure flow control globally for all ports:

  1. From the main menu, select Port Settings.
    The configured ports are listed in the main pane.
  2. For Flow Control, select one of the following options from the drop-down:
    • both: Configures flow control in PAUSE generation and honoring mode.
    • generate-only: Configures flow control in PAUSE generation mode only.
    • honor-only: Configures flow control in PAUSE honoring mode only.
    • None: Disables flow control configurations.

    Flow Control Configuration

Parent topic: Configuring Port Settings