APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR DISTRIBUTING BUFFER STATUS INFORMATION IN A SWITCHING FABRIC

摘要

Network switching and/or routing devices can use switching fabrics that gath er information about output port buffer status and distribute that information to various line cards for use in data frame congestion avoidance. The switching fabric can gather output buffer status information for all output ports and distribute that information to each line card in an efficient, in-band manne r. Individual line cards can use the information to determine from which line card virtual output queue to dequeue data frames destined for the switching fabric. Line cards can also gather output buffer status information associat ed with line card queues used for receiving data from the switching fabric. Suc h data is used in a manner similar to the output buffer data from the switchin g fabric.