Patent ID: 7433303

Claim:
In a networking apparatus, a method of operation comprising: allocating at least one storage medium to service network traffic of a link; receiving, buffering, and forwarding network traffic of the link using said allocated storage medium; determining one or more sizes of at least one period in a plurality of periods between successive preemptive issuance of the preemptive pause controls for a sender of the link; preemptively issuing pause controls over said plurality of periods to the sender of the network traffic of the link to preemptively regulate a rate the sender transmits network traffic for the link; and wherein said determining of said one or more sizes of said periods comprises determining the one or more sizes of said periods, based at least in part on a ratio of a working capacity of the allocated storage medium to a difference between a fill rate of an input line over which the network traffic is received and a network traffic drain rate of the link.