InfiniBand System Area Networks using link-level flow control can experience congestion spreading, where one bottleneck link causes traffic to block throughout the network. End-to-end congestion control using Explicit Congestion Notification (ECN) packet marking has the potential to solve this problem. In this paper, the author develops and evaluates ECN mechanisms for switches with input-buffered configuration (typical for InfiniBand), as opposed to traditional techniques that target output-buffered switches. The mechanisms vary in two dimensions: the condition that triggers a marking event and the set of packets marked at such an event. Finally, schemes that use state at both input and output ports to trigger marking events can improve fairness over purely input-triggered marking schemes.
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