Fibre channel credit-based link flow control overlay onto fibre channel over ethernet

An apparatus, comprising:

• an intake buffer module;
• a flow control module configured to define an available bits indicator, the available bits indicator representing a number of unallocated bits within the intake buffer module;
• a transceiver module configured to receive a credit recovery frame from a peripheral device, the transceiver module configure to transmit, in response to receiving the credit recovery frame, a credit update frame to the peripheral device and based at least in part on the available bits indicator, the transceiver module configured to receive an Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) frame from the peripheral device, a size of the FCoE frame being less than or equal to the number of unallocated bits;
• and
• a switch fabric interface module to be operatively coupled to a plurality of switch fabric devices that define at least a portion of a switch fabric, the switch fabric interface module configured to define at least one cell based at least in part on the FCoE frame, the switch fabric interface module configured to transmit the at least one cell to at least one switch fabric device from the plurality of switch fabric devices.