Patent ID: 8351331

Claim:
A method of end host based traffic management in a network which is arranged to operate separately from a protocol used within the network, the method comprising: receiving data, the data comprising rates for each flow at each end host; computing a utilization of a shared resource in the network using the data; updating a rate limit for a flow at an end host based on the computed utilization of the shared resource and defined flow weights, wherein updating a rate limit for a flow comprises: updating a virtual capacity parameter for the resource based on the computed utilization, wherein updating the virtual capacity parameter comprises: increasing the value of the virtual capacity parameter if the computed utilization is below a target value; and decreasing the value of the virtual capacity parameter if the computed utilization is above the target value; and computing a rate limit for the flow as a portion of the virtual capacity according to the defined flow weights; and repeating the method to dynamically update the rate limit for a flow.