AS5800-EC Series CLI Reference Guide R02

Table Of Contents
Chapter 22
| Data Center Bridging Commands
Priority-based Flow Control Commands
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Priority-based Flow Control Commands
Priority-based Flow Control (PFC) is used to reduce frame loss due to congestion by
inhibiting the transmission of frames based on individual traffic classes. PFC can
pause high priority traffic only when necessary to avoid dropping frames, while
allowing traditional traffic assigned other priorities to continue flowing through an
interface.
Traffic classes are specified in the priority field of the 802.1Q VLAN header, which
identifies an 802.1p priority value. However, a VLAN unaware end station can also
use PFC by sending traffic as priority-tagged and ignoring the VLAN ID in received
frames. Note that some frames, such as BPDUs, are sent untagged and can bypass
the output queues, it is strongly recommended that the default priority for a port
not have PFC enabled.
PFC can reduce the number of frames discarded due to congestion for loss-
sensitive protocols. However, PFC can cause congestion to spread, and is therefore
intended for use on networks of limited extent, such as within a data center. When
PFC is used, deployment of Congestion Notification (CN) can reduce the frequency
at which PFC is invoked.
Configuration Guidelines
Take the following steps to configure PFC:
1. Ensure that tagging is enabled on the interfaces using PFC so that the 802.1p
priority values are carried through the network (using the switchport allowed
vlan command).
2. Use the pfc mode command to enable priority-based flow control on the
interface.
3. Use the pfc priority command to specify the CoS values that should be paused
(i.e., not dropped) due to greater loss sensitivity.
Table 106: Priority-based Flow Control Commands
Command Function Mode
pfc mode Sets the PFC mode to negotiate capability through
DCBX or by forcing it to on state
IC
pfc priority Enables PFC for specified priorities IC
clear pfc statistics Clears PFC statistics PE
show pfc Shows PFC configuration settings PE
show pfc statistics Shows PFC statistics for the number of PFC frames
received and transmitted for each priority
PE