Patent ID: 8817609

Claim:
A communications system comprising: a source node configured to communicate messages with a target node; the target node comprising: processing logic configured to process at least some of the messages received from the source node; load detection logic configured to detect a processing load of the target node; load control logic configured to notify the source node when a predetermined processing load level has been reached or exceeded, and to instruct the source node to reject a portion of the messages received at the source node without forwarding the messages to the target node by responding to each off-hook notification forwarded by the source node with a Negative Acknowledgment (NAK) and an overload level of the target node; and the source node comprising: message filtering logic configured to reduce a rate at which messages are sent to the target node responsive to receiving the instruction from the target node by rejecting messages at the level indicated by the target node, and wherein a message that is not rejected is re-transmitted to the target node for processing.