Patent ID: 8400973

Claim:
A network including a data transmitting node and a data receiving node, wherein data frames are transmitted from the data transmitting node to the data receiving node, each data frame carrying information belonging to one of a plurality of data flows, said network comprising: within the data receiving node, a first processor coupled to a first memory for storing computer program instructions, wherein when the first processor executes the computer program instructions, the data receiving node is caused to: determine for each of the data flows, at the end of a first time period having a predetermined first length, an estimate of or a measure representing the total number of received data frames that have been faulty during the first time period, wherein faulty frames include both lost frames and frames received with errors; calculate based on the determined estimates or measures for all of the data flows, a bandwidth capacity reference value determining the currently allowable total maximum bandwidth for transmission in all of the data flows from the data transmitting node to the data receiving node, wherein the bandwidth capacity reference value is calculated utilizing bandwidth capacity information for all of the data flows and the estimates or measures of faulty data frames, without measuring bottleneck buffer levels; and generate and send a capacity allocation message to the data transmitting node, the capacity allocation message specifying a bit rate that the data transmitting node is allowed to transmit to the data receiving node during a predetermined time period for an identified priority queue flow, wherein the bit rate is based on the bandwidth capacity reference value; and within the data transmitting node, a second processor coupled to a second memory for storing computer program instructions, wherein when the second processor executes the computer program instructions, the data transmitting node is caused to shape the identified priority queue flow according to the received capacity allocation message; wherein data buffers in the data receiving node are maintained at a level low enough for handling required retransmissions and high enough to ensure throughput when scheduled.