When I run the command show interface G0/1 on this Cisco router it displays 1005969 pause output within the output.
What does a pause output mean?
Hello Robert
Pause input and output frames are IEEE frames that are sent by devices in an effort to slow down the sending rate of the port of the device on the other end of the link.
Pause input frames are those pause frames received from the connected device. Pause output frames are those sent by your device on this port.
Each pause frame essentially askes for a little silence time interval (the equivalent of 512 bytes sent on the wire.)
If you have pause output frames coming from the interface, your switch is essentially sending requests to the device connected to this port to slow down its sending rate. This means that you have enabled flow control on this interface.
If the device on the other end does not support pause frames or is not configured to listen for them, then these frames are being sent for nothing. Generally, it is best practice to have flow control off. If you have it off and there are no other errors that show up on the interface, you’re good to go. If not, then you can experiment with flow control making sure that both ends are configured to function with it.
I hope this has been helpful!
Laz