Patent ID: 8625426

Claim:
A method of flow control on a network formed of a plurality of edge nodes and a plurality of core nodes, in which a plurality of flows, each formed of data packets, are introduced into the network from one of the edge nodes functioning as an ingress gateway, and travel on a predefined path via at least one of the core nodes to a different edge node functioning as an egress gateway, the method comprising: each core node: comparing a first reception rate of data packets against a first threshold value; and if the first reception rate is greater than the first threshold value, adding a first congestion marker (TT) to the header of received packets; the egress gateway: monitoring the number of received unmarked data packets, packets marked with the first congestion marker and packets marked with a second congestion marker (RT); sending a network congestion message containing the monitored data as an indicator of network congestion, to the ingress gateway; the ingress gateway: receiving the network congestion message from the egress gateway; terminating a first subset of the flows such that data packets belonging to those flows are not sent to the at least one core node; selecting a second subset of flows for possible termination; marking received data packets belonging to the second subset of flows with the second congestion marker (RT); and sending data packets marked with the second congestion marker (RT) to the egress gateway via the network, wherein the method further comprises: the core nodes ignoring any data packets containing the first congestion marker (TT) or the second congestion marker (RT) in the comparison of the first reception rate; and the ingress gateway unselecting flows from the second subset of flows, if the ingress gateway receives a network congestion message indicating that network congestion has decreased.