GarrettCom CS14 - Manual (Page 28)

CS14 & CSN14 Series Converter Switches Installation and User Guide (09/09)
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capability for the maximum resources of the Magnum CS14 & CSN14 Series unit to be
applied to all traffic loads, even when the traffic activity is unbalanced across the ports.
Since the traffic on an operating network is constantly varying in packet density per port
and in aggregate density, the Magnum CS14 & CSN14 Series Converter Switches are
constantly adapting internally to provide maximum network performance with the least
dropped packets.
When the Switch detects that its free buffer queue space is low, the Switch sends
industry standard (full-duplex only) PAUSE packets out to the devices sending packets to
cause “flow control”. This tells the sending devices to temporarily stop sending traffic,
which allows a traffic catch-up to occur without dropping packets. Then, normal packet
buffering and processing resumes. This flow-control sequence occurs in a small fraction of
a second and is transparent to an observer. See Section 4.6 for additional details.
Another feature implemented in Magnum CS14 & CSN14 Series Converter
Switches is a collision-based flow-control mechanism (when operating at half-duplex only).
When the Switch detects that its free buffer queue space is low, the Switch prevents more
frames from entering by forcing a collision signal on all receiving half-duplex ports in order