Patent ID: 6992980

Claim:
A method for enabling a traffic flow control down to all sub-ports of a switching function made of a N-port core switch fabric, said switching function comprising one or more port adapters, each said port adapter including one or more sub-port adapters, said method comprising the steps of: in each said sub-port adapter, detecting congestion in an OUT leg of said sub-port adapter; reporting said detected congestion through an IN leg of said sub-port adapter, said step of reporting further including the step of: piggyback conveying said detected congestion over an incoming traffic entering an input port of said N-port core switching fabric from said IN leg of said sub-port adapter; in said N-port core switch fabric: broadcasting said detected congestion to all output ports; in each said port adapter, broadcasting said detected congestion to all sub-ports, thereby informing all said sub-port adapters of said detected congestion in any one of said OUT leg.