Patent ID: 7855954

Claim:
A method comprising: defining a low watermark value as a function of a number of open buffers in a receiving unit; receiving a data packet from a sending unit; determining whether the data packet includes a packet delay indicator located in a header of the data packet, wherein the packet delay indicator is sent by the sending unit responsive to determining that a transmission of the data packet was delayed; defining a first speculative credit value responsive to receiving the packet delay indicator, wherein the first speculative credit value is defined by a function comprising adding half a difference between the low watermark value and an available credit limit value to a speculative credit value; defining a second speculative credit value as a function of the first speculative credit value added to a regular credit value; generating a flow control packet including the second speculative credit value; sending the flow control packet to the sending unit; and saving the defined second speculative credit value in a register.