Congestion managment for fibre channel over ethernet over wide area networks

A layer three (L3) network device of an L3 wide area network, the L3 network device comprising:

• a control unit comprising one or more processors;
• a management interface of the control unit that receives configuration data defining a service link to a remote L3 network device, wherein the service link comprises a pseudowire operating over a tunnel within the wide area network to transport layer two (L2) communications from a local edge network, attached by an attachment circuit to the L3 network device, to a remote edge network attached to the remote L3 network device, wherein the control unit establishes the service link;
• a defect detection module of the control unit that receives, from the remote L3 network device, a message that includes a value for determining a performance metric value for loss or delay of the L2 communications being transported by the service link from the L3 network device to the remote L3 network device,
• wherein the defect detection module determines the performance metric value satisfies a condition of a first defect policy and does not satisfy a condition of a second defect policy, and
• wherein the defect detection module, in response to determining the performance metric value satisfies the condition of the first defect policy and does not satisfy the condition of the second defect policy, applies a congestion mechanism specified by the first defect policy on the attachment circuit to the local edge network, wherein the congestion mechanism specified by the first defect policy at least temporarily reduces an amount of service traffic within the wide area network that is issued by devices of the local edge network.

A system comprising:

• a wide area network comprising a provider edge (PE) router to establish a Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) pseudowire over the wide area network to a remote PE router of the wide area network;
• a Lossless Ethernet network to attach, by an attachment circuit, to the FCoE pseudowire at the PE router;
• a Fibre Channel Fabric connected to the Lossless Ethernet network and to a storage device that provides data for transmission over the wide area network by the FCoE pseudowire,
• wherein the PE router receives, from the remote PE router, a message that includes a value for determining a performance metric value for loss or delay of FCoE traffic being transported by the FCoE pseudowire from the PE router to the remote PE router, and
• and wherein the PE router, in response to determining the performance metric value satisfies a condition of a first defect policy and does not satisfy a condition of a second defect policy, injects an FCoE flow control extension specified by the first defect policy into the Lossless Ethernet network via the attachment circuit.