Patent ID: 8238339

Claim:
A method comprising: forwarding a packet through a switch as soon as a Start Of Packet delimiter (SOP) is received for said packet; inserting one or more discard bits at an End of Packet (EOP) cycle for said packet wherein said one or more discard bits request said packet cancellation upon a condition selected from the group consisting of a pattern not match with trace enabled, a pattern match with packet filter enabled, and any detected error; storing said one or more discard bits in a memory, wherein said storing is to a memory location indexed through a transmitted packet index; generating a STOMP Control Symbol based on said one or more discard bits and a configuration of an Egress Port (EP), wherein said STOMP Control Symbol requests a Link Partner to cancel said packet; receiving from said Link Partner a Not Accepted Control Symbol (NACK) along with an Acknowledgement Indentification (ACK ID); and retrieving said stored said one or more discard bits from said memory; comparing said retrieved said stored said one or more discard bits from said memory against said configuration of said EP; and releasing said memory used to store said one or more discard bits and discarding said packet.