Patent ID: 8824294

Claim:
A method comprising: receiving, at a network device, a packet that was forwarded to the network device by an intermediate device that is separate from a source device from which the packet originated; augmenting a forwarding table, used by the network device to route packets through a network, with a resource utilization value that is associated with the source device and that tracks an amount of a resource of the network device being used to process data originating at the source device; determining, by the network device, that the resource utilization value equals or exceeds a first threshold; responsive to the determining, sending, by the network device, through one or more hops in between the network device and the source device, a first message to the source device to either pause or slow down transmission of a first type of data; determining, by the network device, that the resource utilization value associated with the source device does not exceed the first threshold; and responsive to the determining that the resource utilization value associated with the source device does not exceed the first threshold, sending, by the network device, through one or more hops in between the network device and the source device, a second message addressed to the source device to resume transmission of the first type of data; wherein the source device did not receive the packet from any other device.