Patent ID: 7002914

Claim:
An apparatus for controlling the congestion of a buffer circuit, having a depth indication signal, in a data network, the apparatus comprising: a data rate monitor coupled to the data network input and accepting a stream of data packets, the data rate monitor outputting the stream of data packets and a control signal indicating the service flow's data packet flow rate; a flow limiter having a data input coupled to the stream of data packets output from the data rate monitor, the flow limiter also having a control input coupled to the control signal from the data rate monitor, the flow limiter outputting the stream of data packets; and a congestion controller having a data input coupled to the stream of data packets from the flow limiter, the congestion controller also having a first control input coupled to the control signal from the data rate monitor, a second control input coupled to the depth indication signal, and a third control input coupled to a priority signal, the congestion controller controlling the rate at which the stream of data packets enters the buffer circuit in response to the first, second, and third control signals by dropping predetermined data packets from the stream of data packets.