Link speed downshifting for error determination and performance enhancements

• US 9,785,531 B2
• Filed: 03/21/2016
• Issued: 10/10/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 05/15/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Astigarraga, Tara, Derobertis, Christopher V., Dickens, Louie A., Starling, Michael E., Winarski, Daniel J.
• Primary Examiner(s): Torres, Joseph D
• Application Number:
  US15/075,456
• Publication Number:
  US 20160203039A1
• Time in Patent Office: 568 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/07 Responding to the occurrence of a fault, e.g. fault tolerance
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0709 in a distributed system consisting of a plurality of standalone computer nodes, e.g. clusters, client-server systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0745 in an input/output transactions management context input/output processing in general G06F13/00
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0754 by exceeding limits
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/076 by exceeding a count or rate limit, e.g. word- or bit count limit
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0772 Means for error signaling, e.g. using interrupts, exception flags, dedicated error registers
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0778 Dumping, i.e. gathering error/state information after a fault for later diagnosis
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0787 Storage of error reports, e.g. persistent data storage, storage using memory protection
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/079 Root cause analysis, i.e. error or fault diagnosis in a hardware test environment G06F11/22; in a software test environment G06F11/36
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0793 Remedial or corrective actions recovery from an exception in an instruction pipeline G06F9/3861; by retry G06F11/1402; for recovering from a failure of a protocol instance or entity H04L69/40
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/26 Functional testing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3065 Monitoring arrangements determined by the means or processing involved in reporting the monitored data error or fault reporting or logging G06F11/0766
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 10/0795 Performance monitoring; Measurement of transmission parameters
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 10/07953 Monitoring or measuring OSNR, BER or Q
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/00 Arrangements for detecting or preventing errors in the information received correcting synchronisation H04L7/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/0002 by adapting the transmission rate
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/25 with rate being modified by the source upon detecting a change of network conditions
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 30/50 in wire-line communication networks, e.g. low power modes or reduced link rate

Abstract

Various embodiments for regulating link speed for performance enhancement and port diagnosis are provided. In response to identifying an amount of errors in a communications link above a predetermined threshold, an applicable transmission speed is selectively reduced. If errors identified at the reduced transmission speed are found to decrease, a communications port incorporating the communications link is flagged as potentially dirty, and if the errors identified at the reduced transmission speed are found to remain constant, the communications port is flagged as potentially bad.

Claims

1. A method for regulating link speed for performance enhancement and port diagnosis by a processor device, comprising:

in response to identifying an amount of errors in a communications link above a predetermined threshold, selectively reducing (n−

1) an applicable transmission speed; and

if errors identified at the reduced transmission speed are found to decrease, flagging a communications port incorporating the communications link as potentially dirty, and if the errors identified at the reduced transmission speed are found to remain constant, flagging the communications port as potentially bad.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the selective reduction occurs upon one of a temporary, permanent, and user-defined basis;

the selective reduction is performed using one of a manual setting adjustment and speed negotiation logic applied to the communications link; and

selective reducing the applicable transmission speed further includes, upon a determination of at least one criterion, forgoing the reduction of the applicable link speed to n−

1 and instead implementing a further, n−

2, transmission speed reduction.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein selectively reducing the applicable transmission speed further includes sending a Network Online/Offline Sequence (NOS) to initiate a link bounce and re-negotiate the transmission speed over the communications link.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein selectively reducing the applicable transmission speed further includes advertising a top speed as the reduced, n−

1 speed.

5. The method of claim 1, further including performing at least one of:

logging errors in the communications link in at least one error counter,

returning the applicable transmission speed to a prior (n) state,

identifying errors above the predetermined threshold,

selectively reducing the applicable transmission speed, and

flagging the communications port as one of potentially dirty and potentially bad.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein if the communications port is flagged as potentially dirty, continuing to operate at the reduced, n−

1 speed until a maintenance operation is performed on at least one of the communications link and the communications port.

7. The method of claim 1, further including alerting a vested party per an alert vested parties policy.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein:

identifying the amount of errors includes identifying an environmental error in which at least one environmental sensor is found at or below a contamination tolerance of a recommended handling procedure; and

if a threshold for the alert vested parties policy is exceeded, an alert is provided to an administrator to indicate malicious activity against infrastructure incorporating the communications link.

9. A system for regulating link speed for performance enhancement and port diagnosis, comprising:

a communications link;

a communications port connected to the communications link; and

a processor device in operable control over the communications port and communications link, wherein the processor device, in response to identifying an amount of errors in the communications link above a predetermined threshold, selectively reduces (n−

1) an applicable transmission speed, and

if errors identified at the reduced transmission speed are found to decrease, flags the communications port as potentially dirty, and if the errors identified at the reduced transmission speed are found to remain constant, flags the communications port as potentially bad.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein:

the selective reduction occurs upon one of a temporary, permanent, and user-defined basis,

the selective reduction is performed using one of a manual setting adjustment and speed negotiation logic applied to the communications link, and

the processor device, pursuant to selective reducing the applicable transmission speed, upon a determination of at least one criterion, forgoes the reduction of the applicable link speed to n−

1 and instead implements a further, n−

2, transmission speed reduction.

11. The system of claim 9, wherein the processor device, pursuant to selectively reducing the applicable transmission speed, sends a Network Online/Offline Sequence (NOS) to initiate a link bounce and re-negotiate the transmission speed over the communications link.

12. The system of claim 9, wherein the processor device selectively reduces the applicable transmission speed further includes advertising a top speed as the reduced, n−

1 speed.

13. The system of claim 9, wherein the processor device performs at least one of:

logging errors in the communications link in at least one error counter,

returning the applicable transmission speed to a prior (n) state,

identifying errors above the predetermined threshold,

selectively reducing the applicable transmission speed, and

flagging the communications port as one of potentially dirty and potentially bad.

14. The system of claim 9, wherein if the communications port is flagged as potentially dirty, the processor device continues to operate at the reduced, n−

1 speed until a maintenance operation is performed on at least one of the communications link and the communications port.

15. The system of claim 9, wherein the processor device alerts a vested party per an alert vested parties policy.

16. The system of claim 15, further including at least one environmental sensor associated with the communication link, and wherein:

identifying the amount of errors includes identifying an environmental error in which the at least one environmental sensor is found at or below a contamination tolerance of a recommended handling procedure; and

if a threshold for the alert vested parties policy is exceeded, an alert is provided to an administrator to indicate malicious activity against infrastructure incorporating the communications link.

17. A computer program product for regulating link speed for performance enhancement and port diagnosis by a processor device, the computer program product comprising a no-transitory computer-readable storage medium having computer-readable program code portions stored therein, the computer-readable program code portions comprising:

an executable portion that, in response to identifying an amount of errors in a communications link above a predetermined threshold, selectively reduces (n−

1) an applicable transmission speed; and

an executable portion that, if errors identified at the reduced transmission speed are found to decrease, flags a communications port incorporating the communications link as potentially dirty, and if the errors identified at the reduced transmission speed are found to remain constant, flags the communications port as potentially bad.

18. The computer program product of claim 17, wherein:

the selective reduction occurs upon one of a temporary, permanent, and user-defined basis;

the selective reduction is performed using one of a manual setting adjustment and speed negotiation logic applied to the communications link; and

further including an executable portion that, pursuant to selectively reducing the applicable transmission speed, upon a determination of at least one criterion, forgoes the reduction of the applicable link speed to n−

1 and instead implements a further, n−

2, transmission speed reduction.

19. The computer program product of claim 17, further including an executable portion that, pursuant to selectively reducing the applicable transmission speed, sends a Network Online/Offline Sequence (NOS) to initiate a link bounce and re-negotiate the transmission speed over the communications link.

20. The computer program product of claim 17, further including an executable portion that, pursuant to reducing the applicable transmission speed, advertises a top speed as the reduced, n−

1 speed.

21. The computer program product of claim 17, further including an executable portion that performs at least one of:

logging errors in the communications link in at least one error counter,

returning the applicable transmission speed to a prior (n) state,

identifying errors above the predetermined threshold,

selectively reducing the applicable transmission speed, and

flagging the communications port as one of potentially dirty and potentially bad.

22. The computer program product of claim 17, further including an executable portion that, if the communications port is flagged as potentially dirty, continues to operate at the reduced, n−

1 speed until a maintenance operation is performed on at least one of the communications link and the communications port.

23. The computer program product of claim 17, further including an executable portion that alerts a vested party per an alert vested parties policy.

24. The computer program product of claim 17, further including an executable portion that:

pursuant to identifying the amount of errors, identifies an environmental error in which at least one environmental sensor is found at or below a contamination tolerance of a recommended handling procedure; and

if a threshold for the alert vested parties policy is exceeded, provides an alert to an administrator to indicate malicious activity against infrastructure incorporating the communications link.