Patent ID: 8644139

Claim:
An apparatus, comprising: a first adapter comprising a first queue that corresponds to a first priority and a second queue that corresponds to a second priority, wherein the first queue is configured to store a first data frame associated with the first priority, wherein the second queue is configured to store a second data frame associated with the second priority, and wherein the first adapter is configured to generate a first priority pause frame; and a distributed virtual bridge coupled to the first adapter, the distributed virtual bridge comprising: an integrated switch router; a first transport layer module configured to: provide a frame-based interface to the integrated switch router; receive the first data frame from a second transport layer module via the integrated switch router; and receive the second data frame from the second transport layer module via the integrated switch router, wherein the first transport layer module includes a first buffer associated with the first priority and a second buffer associated with the second priority; and a first bridge element coupled to the first adapter and to the first transport layer module, wherein the first bridge element is configured to: receive the first priority pause frame from the first adapter, wherein receipt of the first priority pause frame initiates generation of a first interrupt signal; communicate the first interrupt signal to the first transport layer module to interrupt delivery of the first data frame to the first queue wherein while the delivery of the first data frame is interrupted, the second data frame associated with the second priority is received from the first transport layer module and the second data frame is forwarded from the first transport layer module to the second queue.