Patent ID: 7492710

Claim:
A flow control method comprising: transmitting a first plurality of packets from a transmitting node to a receiving node at an initial packet rate; transmitting a second plurality of packets from said transmitting node to said receiving node at a congested packet rate less than said initial packet rate in response to a signal from said receiving node representative of a congested condition at said receiving node; and controlling a length of an inter-packet gap disposed between at least two of said second plurality of packets to change said initial packet rate to said congested packet rate; wherein said transmitting node comprises an Advanced Telecommunications Computing Architecture (ATCA) blade of an ATCA chassis and said receiving node comprises a switch of a backplane of said ATCA chassis, and wherein each of said first and second plurality of packets complies with an Ethernet communication protocol; and wherein said length of said inter-packet gap is selected in response to a portion of said signal representative of a severity of said congestion condition.