Patent ID: 7299470

Claim:
A method in a data processing system for regulating an amount of generated communication traffic using multiple execution threads or processes in a data processing system, the method comprising: starting a first thread or process and a second thread or process, wherein the first thread or process and the second thread or process access a message count variable in shared memory, wherein the message count variable represents a number of messages that are transmitted by the first thread or process within a first time unit; sleeping the second thread or process for the first time unit; in response to an awakening of the second thread or process, resetting the message count variable by the second thread or process and re-sleeping the second thread or process for the first time unit; comparing the message count variable with a predetermined count value on the first thread or process; in response to a first comparative result, sleeping the first thread or process for a second time unit; in response to an awakening of the first thread or process, repeating the comparison step on the first thread or process; and in response to a second comparative result, adjusting the message count variable and transmitting a message on the first thread or process.