Patent ID: 7313627

Claim:
A method, comprising: recurring adjustment of an ongoing data flow between a pair of nodes communicatively coupled by a network, said recurring adjustment performed by way of alterations made to characteristics of said flow, such alterations being scheduled and determined in response to ongoing observations of networking performance statistics related to said flow's previous behavior; said recurring adjustment including; scheduling flow control adjustments specified by a flow timeout pointer positioned with respect to a flow timeout threshold value; said positioning of said flow timeout pointer including setting a delay between when a last adjustment is made and when a next adjustment is made; said setting a delay including: calculating a first flow timeout threshold level; calculating a second flow timeout threshold level; and setting either the first flow timeout threshold level or the second flow timeout threshold level as the flow timeout threshold value based on a status of the ongoing data flow; wherein: setting said second flow timeout threshold level as the flow timeout threshold value makes the delay longer than setting said first flow timeout threshold level as the flow timeout threshold value.