switch based show interface gi0/X pause inputs

[jledwardsr]

I have never seen a pause input on any of my Cisco devices. I am working with a new third party hardware and I am seeing these occur. Anyone know what pause inputs mean or how Cisco defines them. I can't find anything related to them online.

Thanks

SW1_MDF#sh int gi0/2

GigabitEthernet0/2 is up, line protocol is up (connected)

Hardware is Gigabit Ethernet, address is 0023.ea5d.fb1a (bia 0023.ea5d.fb1a)

Description: DSL2_MDF

MTU 1500 bytes, BW 1000000 Kbit, DLY 10 usec,

reliability 255/255, txload 1/255, rxload 1/255

Encapsulation ARPA, loopback not set

Keepalive set (10 sec)

Full-duplex, 1000Mb/s, media type is 10/100/1000BaseTX

input flow-control is off, output flow-control is unsupported

ARP type: ARPA, ARP Timeout 04:00:00

Last input never, output 00:00:00, output hang never

Last clearing of "show interface" counters never

Input queue: 0/75/0/0 (size/max/drops/flushes); Total output drops: 0

Queueing strategy: fifo

Output queue: 0/40 (size/max)

5 minute input rate 0 bits/sec, 0 packets/sec

5 minute output rate 1000 bits/sec, 2 packets/sec

6103271 packets input, 1515380005 bytes, 0 no buffer

Received 132253 broadcasts (0 multicasts)

0 runts, 0 giants, 0 throttles

0 input errors, 0 CRC, 0 frame, 0 overrun, 0 ignored

0 watchdog, 16167 multicast, 460 pause input

0 input packets with dribble condition detected

12667143 packets output, 6917415658 bytes, 0 underruns

0 output errors, 0 collisions, 1 interface resets

0 babbles, 0 late collision, 0 deferred

0 lost carrier, 0 no carrier, 0 PAUSE output

0 output buffer failures, 0 output buffers swapped out

[Giuseppe Larosa]

Hello Jermaine,

this is not a problem by itself

IEEE pause frames are sent by the device connected to the switch port in an effort to slow down sending rate of switch port.

each pause frame would ask for a little silence time interval (the equivalent of 512 bytes sent on wire)

see

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethernet_flow_control

but you have :

input flow-control is off, output flow-control is unsupported

input flow control is off so your switch port should ignore these messages.

you may consider to enable it because the other device can be dropping frames from time to time for lack of buffers.

Hope to help

Giuseppe

[Joseph W. Doherty]

"you may consider to enable it because the other device can be dropping frames from time to time for lack of buffers. "

BTW, generally, best practice would be to not enable it between network devices.