Re: Pause frame

From: darbyweaver@yahoo.com
Date: Sat Jun 03 2006 - 01:28:32 ART


Hi Feras,

A very obscure topic to present one with... but since you asked.

With that said:

Look to the bootom of the posting, the command you really want is called "flowcontrol"

The caveat is that "flowcontrol" and mls cannot be enabled at the same time.
The other caveat is the one about the Fastethernet interface and the gigabit interfaces on the 3550, the Gig interfaces do both send and receive, while FastEthernet only receives pause frame.

Note: I included a reference from the CAT 5000 as well. - First thing I found.

The "show to know" are:

sh int flowcontrol
sh flowcontrol

Here are some options for the Pause Frame:

Using Flow-Control Keywords
Table 6-2 describes guidelines for using different configurations of the send and receive keywords with the set port flowcontrol command.

Table 6-2 Send and Receive Keyword Configurations

Configuration Description
send on
 Enables a local port to send pause frames to a remote port. Use send on when a remote port is set to receive on or receive desired.
 
send off
 Prevents a local port from sending pause frames to a remote port. Use send off when a remote port is set to receive off or receive desired.
 
send desired
 Indicates preference to send pause frames, but autonegotiates flow control. You can use send desired when a remote port is set to receive on, receive off, or receive desired.
 
receive on
 Enables a local port to process pause frames that a remote port sends. Use receive on when a remote port is set to send on or send desired.
 
receive off
 Prevents a local port from processing pause frames. Use receive off when a remote port is set to send off or send desired.
 
receive desired
 Indicates preference to process pause frames, but autonegotiates flow control. You can use receive desired when a remote port is set to send on, send off, or send desired.
 
=============================================================

flowcontrol
Use the flowcontrol interface configuration command to set the receive or send flow-control value for an interface. When flow control send is on for a device and it detects any congestion at its end, it notifies the link partner or the remote device of the congestion by sending a pause frame. When flow control receive is on for the remote device and it receives a pause frame, it stops sending any data packets. This prevents any loss of data packets during the congestion period.

Use the receive off and send off keywords to disable flow control.

flowcontrol {receive | send} {desired | off | on}

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Note On the Catalyst 3550 switch, Gigabit Ethernet ports can receive and send pause frames; Fast Ethernet ports can receive only pause frames. Therefore, for 10/100 ports, the send keyword is not available.

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Syntax Description
 receive
 Set whether the interface can receive flow-control packets from a remote device.
 
send
 Set whether the interface can send flow-control packets to a remote device. This keyword is not available for 10/100 Mbps interfaces.
 
desired
 When used with receive, allows an interface to operate with an attached device that is required to send flow-control packets or with an attached device that is not required to but can send flow-control packets.
When used with send, the interface sends flow-control packets to a remote device if the remote device supports it.
 
off
 When used with receive, turns off an attached device's ability to send flow-control packets to an interface. When used with send, turns off the local port's ability to send flow-control packets to a remote device.
 
on
 When used with receive, allows an interface to operate with an attached device that is required to send flow-control packets or with an attached device that is not required to but can send flow-control packets.
When used with send, the interface sends flow-control packets to a remote device if the remote device supports it.
 

Defaults
The defaults for Gigabit Ethernet interfaces are flowcontrol receive off and flowcontrol send desired. The defaults for Fast Ethernet interfaces are flowcontrol receive off and flowcontrol send off.

Command Modes
Interface configuration

Command History
 Release Modification
12.1(4)EA1
 This command was introduced.
 

Usage Guidelines
You must not configure both IEEE 802.3z flow control and quality of service (QoS) on a switch. Before configuring flow control on an interface, use the no mls qos global configuration command to disable QoS on the switch.

Note that when used with receive, the on and desired keywords have the same result.

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Note On the switch, 10/100/1000 Mbps and GBIC ports can receive and send pause frames; 10/100 Mbps ports can receive only pause frames. Therefore, for 10/100 ports, the conditions described in the next paragraphs are always send off.

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When you use the flowcontrol command to set a port to control traffic rates during congestion, you are setting flow control on a port to one of these conditions:

receive on and send on: Flow control operates in both directions; pause frames can be sent by both the local device and the remote device to show link congestion.

receive on and send desired: The port can receive pause frames and is able to send pause frames if the attached device supports it.

receive on and send off: The port cannot send out pause frames, but can operate with an attached device that is required to or is able to send pause frames; the port is able to receive pause frames.

receive off and send on: The port sends pause frames if the remote device supports it, but cannot receive pause frames from the remote device.

receive off and send desired: The port cannot receive pause frames, but can send pause frames if the attached device supports it.

receive off and send off: Flow control does not operate in either direction. In case of congestion, no indication is given to the link partner and no pause frames are sent or received by either device.

Table 2-4 shows the flow control results on local and remote ports for a combination of settings. The table assumes that receive desired has the same results as using the receive on keywords. Because 10/100 Mbps ports cannot send pause frames, only the last two rows (send off) apply to these ports.

Table 2-4 Flow Control Settings and Local and Remote Port Flow Control Resolution
 Flow Control Settings Flow Control Resolution
Local Device Remote Device Local Device Remote Device
send on/receive on
 send on/receive on

send on/receive off

send desired/receive on

send desired/receive off

send off/receive on

send off/receive off
 Sends and receives

Does not send or receive

Sends and receives

Does not send or receive

Sends and receives

Does not send or receive
 Sends and receives

Does not send or receive

Sends and receives

Does not send or receive

Receives only

Does not send or receive
 
send on/receive off
 send on/receive on

send on/receive off

send desired/receive on

send desired/receive off

send off/receive on

send off/receive off
 Does not send or receive

Does not send or receive

Sends only

Does not send or receive

Sends only

Does not send or receive
 Does not send or receive

Does not send or receive

Receives only

Does not send or receive

Receives only

Does not send or receive
 
send desired/receive on
 send on/receive on

send on/receive off

send desired/receive on

send desired/receive off

send off/receive on

send off/receive off
 Sends and receives

Receives only

Sends and receives

Receives only

Sends and receives

Does not send or receive
 Sends and receives

Sends only

Sends and receives

Sends only

Receives only

Does not send or receive
 
send desired/receive off
 send on/receive on

send on/receive off

send desired/receive on

send desired/receive off

send off/receive on

send off/receive off
 Does not send or receive

Does not send or receive

Sends only

Does not send or receive

Sends only

Does not send or receive
 Does not send or receive

Does not send or receive

Receives only

Does not send or receive

Receives only

Does not send or receive
 
send off/receive on
 send on/receive on

send on/receive off

send desired/receive on

send desired/receive off

send off/receive on

send off/receive off
 Receives only

Receives only

Receives only

Receives only

Receives only

Does not send or receive
 Sends and receives

Sends only

Sends and receives

Sends only

Receives only

Does not send or receive
 
send off/receive off
 send on/receive on

send on/receive off

send desired/receive on

send desired/receive off

send off/receive on

send off/receive off
 Does not send or receive

Does not send or receive

Does not send or receive

Does not send or receive

Does not send or receive

Does not send or receive
 Does not send or receive

Does not send or receive

Does not send or receive

Does not send or receive

Does not send or receive

Does not send or receive
 

Examples
This example shows how to configure the local port to not support any level of flow control by the remote port:

Switch(config-if)# flowcontrol receive off

Switch(config-if)# flowcontrol send off

You can verify your settings by entering the show interfaces privileged EXEC command.

Related Commands
 Command Description
show interfaces flowcontrol
 Displays interface input and output flow control settings and status.
 
show flowcontrol
 Displays flow control settings and status for specified interfaces or all interfaces on the switch.



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