Method and system for detecting congestion and over subscription in a fibre channel network

A method for detecting congestion on a receive segment of a fibre channel switch element, comprising:

• comparing a counter value to a threshold value, if a receive buffer is full;
• and
• triggering a threshold event if the counter value varies from the threshold value.

A method for detecting congestion at a receive segment of a fibre channel switch element, comprising:

• determining if a receive buffer has been full for a certain duration;
• and
• triggering an event if the duration varies from a threshold value.

A system for detecting congestion in a fibre channel switch element, comprising:

• a first counter that counts a duration for which a frame waits for transmission, and the duration is compared to a threshold value to detect congestion.

A system for detecting congestion at a receive segment of a fibre channel switch element, comprising:

• a receive buffer log that indicates how quickly frames are moving through the receive segment.

A method for determining over-subscription in a transmit port of a fibre channel switch element, comprising:

• determining an over-subscription value based on a source port's data rate, a transmit port's data rate and an entry corresponding to a number of frames that are to be transmitted from the transmit port at a given time;
• and
• notifying a processor of the over-subscription rate if the over-subscription value is different from a threshold value.