Patent ID: 8675486

Claim:
A method for providing flow control in a communication system, the method comprising: receiving a dataflow at a satellite terminal from a host; storing the dataflow in a queue of a system non-specific side of a transport interface of the satellite terminal; determining at the satellite terminal whether the dataflow can be flow controlled; if the dataflow can be flow controlled, obtaining a credit allocation corresponding to a queue of a system specific side of the transport interface, wherein the system specific side is configured to directly communicate over a satellite link of the communication system, and wherein the system specific queue is configured for storing data to be transmitted over the satellite link, and the credit allocation specifies an amount of the dataflow to be sent to the system specific queue, and wherein the system non-specific side of the transport interface includes a transport protocol layer configured to define protocols that operate across the transport interface, and to provide a logical partitioning of processes between satellite system specific characteristics and system non-specific characteristics of the communication system; and transferring the dataflow, based at least in part on the credit allocation, from the system non-specific queue to the system specific queue for transmission over the satellite link.