System Administration Guide: Network Interfaces and Network Virtualization

Best Use of Interface–based Resource Control on a Traditional Network

Consider establishing flow control for heavily used systems, especially those with newer GLD.v3 interfaces with large amounts of available bandwidth. Interface-based flow control improves the efficiency of the interface, the system, and potentially the network. You can apply flow control to any system on any type of network. Furthermore, if your goal is to improve network efficiency, you can separate various services into individual flows. This action assigns separate hardware and software resources to the individual flows, thus isolating them from other services on a particular system. After you establish flows, you can observe traffic for each flow and gather statistics. Thereafter, you can assign bandwidth amount and priorities to control usage on the interfaces.