Lossless Ethernet? Performance Evaluation of Paused-Based Networks

Pause-based flow control avoids data loss by temporarily stopping data transmission before buffer over flow occurs. This mechanism has been proposed as an optional standard in 802.3x. The purpose was to exploit commodity Ethernet for lossless networks such as SONET and Fiber Channel. For example, this standard benefits Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE), which gains increasing popularity in storage area network because of its economical cost while having comparable performances in line rate as the Fiber Channel. Literature also shows that this standard was brought up for Instant Messaging and Metro Ethernet.