Methods and apparatus related to flow control within a data center switch fabric

An apparatus, comprising;

• a switch core having a multi-stage switch fabric physically distributed among a plurality of chassis, a switch module associated with a first stage of the multi-stage switch fabric and not associated with a second stage of the multi-stage switch fabric and being physically located in a first chassis from the plurality of chassis, a switch module associated with the second stage and not associated with the first stage and being physically located in a second chassis from the plurality of chassis physically separate from the first chassis, the multi-stage switch fabric configured to receive a plurality of cells associated with a packet and configured to switch a plurality of cell segments based on the plurality of cells;
• a plurality of edge device coupled to the switch core, an edge device from the plurality of edge devices configured to receive the packet, the edge device configured to send the plurality of cells to the multi-stage switch fabric;
• and
• a controller coupled to the multi-stage switch fabric, the controller configured to perform flow control for the plurality of cells independent of flow control for the plurality of edge devices and intrafabric flow control for the multi-stage switch fabric.