Patent ID: 6850488
Filing Date: 2005-02-01
Classification: H04L,Y02D

Abstract:
1. A method for facilitating efficient flow control for data transmissions between a sender and a plurality of receivers, comprising: sending a stream of packets from the sender to the plurality of receivers; wherein packets in the stream of packets include information specifying a sampling window for the stream of packets, and wherein the sampling window is established without determining a round trip time to the plurality of receivers and without having to wait for the round trip time to elapse before specifying the sampling window; receiving feedback information from the plurality of receivers, wherein a receiver sends feedback information to the sender if a congestion condition occurs at the receiver while receiving packets within the sampling window, wherein the feedback information received from the plurality of receivers is aggregated at intermediate nodes prior to reaching the sender to eliminate redundant information received from the plurality of receivers, and wherein feedback information aggregated at intermediate nodes is sent to a single upstream node; and adjusting a rate of transmission for the stream of packets in response to the feedback information.