Patent ID: 8913495

Claim:
A method of powerline communications in a powerline communications (PLC) network including a first node and at least a second node, comprising: said first node transmitting a data frame to said second node over a PLC channel, wherein said second node has a data buffer for storing received information; said second node running a flow control algorithm which determines a current congestion condition or a projected congestion condition of said data buffer based on at least one congestion parameter, said current congestion condition and said projected congestion condition including nearly congested and fully congested; wherein when said current projected congestion condition or said projected congestion condition is either said nearly congested or said fully congested: said second node transmitting a BUSY comprising frame over said PLC channel to at least said first node, and said first node deferring transmitting of any frames to said second node for a congestion clearing wait time, wherein if said flow control algorithm determines said current congestion condition or said projected congestion condition is said nearly congested, said second node accepts said data frame and said BUSY comprising frame comprises a BUSY-ACCEPT frame, and wherein if said flow control algorithm determines said current congestion condition current is said fully congested, said second node drops said data frame and said BUSY comprising frame comprises a BUSY-REJECT frame.