Methods and structures for improved buffer management and dynamic adaption of flow control status in high-speed communication networks

In an SPI compliant serial communication system having a transmission element and a receiving element, a method comprising:

• generating buffer memory storage metric information within said receiving element wherein said storage metric information indicates buffer memory utilization by each port of a plurality of ports;
• generating, within said receiving element, port status information regarding said each port wherein said port status information includes flow control information;
• transmitting said port status information to said transmission element wherein said port status information is transmitted as xSTAT[1:0] status fields for said each port;
• and
• transmitting packets from said transmission element to said receiving element when permitted in accordance with said flow control information,
• wherein said port status information is updated and transmitted to said transmission element asynchronously with respect to the transmission of said packets.

Apparatus in a transmitting element adapted to transmit to receiving elements having multiple ports, said apparatus comprising:

• flow control logic for generating flow control information for each port of said multiple ports wherein said flow control logic is responsive to flow control status received from receiving elements;
• and
• transmission means coupled to said flow control logic for transmitting packets to a port of said multiple ports when permitted in accordance with flow control information provided by said flow control logic,
• wherein said flow control logic includes an available credit count for said each port and wherein said available credit counter is adjusted in accordance with packets transmitted to a corresponding port of said multiple ports by said transmission means and wherein said available credit counter is also reduced asynchronously with respect transmissions of packets to said corresponding port.