Register based remote data flow control

An input/output (I/O) node configured to communicate with a host across a channel-based switching fabric, said I/O node comprising:

• a memory including send and receive application buffers;
• a transport service layer providing for data transfer across the channel-based switching fabric;
• a network interface controller coupled to the network;
• a plurality of work queues coupled to the network interface controller for posting data transfer requests thereto;
• and
• a user agent coupled to the send and receive buffers and the network interface controller, the user agent posting data transfer requests to the work queues, the network interface controller processing the posted data transfer requests by transferring data between the send and receive buffers and the channel-based switching fabric.

A host computer comprising:

• a network interface controller adapter connecting the host computer to a host channel adapter on a channel-based switching fabric interconnect;
• a host processor;
• a memory having registered send and receive buffers;
• and
• a device driver coupled to the host processor and the memory, and having one or more work queues for posting data transfer requests and a transport service layer providing an end-to-end credit-based flow control across the channel-based switching fabric interconnect according to the status of said registered receive buffers.