Sideband error signaling

A computer program product for facilitating processing within a network, said computer program product comprising:

• a non-transitory computer readable storage medium readable by a processing circuit and storing instructions for execution by the processing circuit for performing a method comprising:
• detecting by a first network component of the network that a malfunction associated with the first network component has occurred, the first network component being coupled to a link that is non-operational due to the malfunction and is designed for automatic link recovery, the network being based on an architecture having an explicit architectural specification defining the architecture, the architectural specification specifying that automatic link recovery is to be performed based on the malfunction. the automatic link recover designed to delay a predetermined amount of time prior to confirming there is a malfunction;
• and
• reporting the malfunction to a second network component, the reporting to alert of the malfunction and to indicate that recovery is to be attempted, and wherein reporting comprises:
• asserting by the first network component a sideband. error signal to, report the malfunction, the sideband error signal being coupled to the output of the first network component and an input of the second network component and the sideband error signal being non-architected in that it is not a part of the architectural specification, the asserting comprising setting an indicator in a position of a status register of the second network component to a defined value, the position corresponding to the sideband error signal for the first network component, and wherein the reporting bypasses the automatic link recovery which is an architected feature specified in the architectural specification, and wherein the reporting is performed absent waiting the predetermined amount of time for the automatic link recovery to confirm the malfunction.

An apparatus comprising:

• a network component of a network configured to perform a method, the network being based on an architecture having an explicit architectural specification defining the architecture, the architectural specification specifying that automatic link recovery is to be performed based on the malfunction, the automatic link recovery designed to delay a predetermined amount of time prior to confirming there is a malfunction, the method comprising:
• receiving by the network component an error indication, the receiving being based on another network component detecting a malfunction and asserting a sideband signal in which an indicator in a position of a status register of the network component is set to a defined value, the position corresponding to the sideband error signal for the another network component, said sideband signal not an architected feature of the another network component and used exclusively to indicate malfunctions, and wherein the receiving the error indication bypasses automatic link recovery for a link associated with the malfunction, alerts the network component of the malfunction and indicates that recovery is to be attempted;
• based on receiving the error indication, the network component signaling an entity, the entity to perform a plurality of actions including restricting a link coupled downstream of the network component, disabling generation of a pre-defined type of response packet, and disabling one or more downstream ports in at least one network component coupled to the another network component asserting the sideband signal.