Patent ID: 7872973

Claim:
A method for incorporating a queuing device as a lossless processing stage in a network device in a communications network between an upstream device and a downstream device in the network device, comprising: monitoring a depth of a queue in the queuing device, wherein the queue receives packets from the upstream device within the network device, and the queuing device acts as a discard point by discarding packets when the queue is full, wherein the upstream device is a traffic manager; if the depth of the queue passes a predetermined threshold, sending a message to the upstream device to reduce a rate at which packets are sent to the queuing device to prevent the queue from filling, thereby preventing packet discarding and loss by the queuing device; sending a message reporting the depth of the queue to the upstream device to thereby enable the upstream device to determine whether to reduce or increase the rate at which the upstream device sends packets to the queuing device; and sending the message from the upstream device to an upstream network device to thereby control a rate at which the upstream device receives packets from the upstream network device.