Tech
16 Sep 2026
6 min read
Ethernet Pause Frames Temporarily Stop Link Transmission
Ethernet links can move frames faster than a receiving device can process or forward them. When that mismatch lasts long enough, receive buffers fill and frames may be dropped. IEEE 802.3x flow control provides a link-level response for full-duplex Ethernet. A device can send a MAC Control PAUSE frame that asks its directly connected peer to stop transmitting ordinary data frames for a specified interval. The pause is temporary, local to that link, and different from congestion control performed by higher-layer protocols.