Patent attributes
Methods and apparatus are provided for managing data flows in a switch connected in a network. Such a method includes monitoring a set of data flows traversing the switch for compliance with a predetermined resource-usage policy, and, in response to detection of a non-compliant data flow, mirroring a set of data packets of that flow to send respective mirror packets to a mirror port of the switch. The method further comprises using the mirror packets sent to the mirror port to construct a non-compliance notification for the non-compliant flow, and sending the non-compliance notification into the network. The resource-usage policy can be defined such that the switch is operable to send a non-compliance notification before occurrence of congestion due to the non-compliant flow.
