Patent ID: 8089971

Claim:
A method for network communication between a first port and a second port using a plurality of virtual lanes, comprising: (a) configuring a threshold value for each of the plurality of virtual lanes; wherein the threshold value defines an amount of data that has to be moved from a receive segment of the second port, before one of a plurality of flow control packets is sent by the second port to the first port; and wherein each of the flow control packets is used to synchronize available credit information between the first port and the second port; (b) setting a timer value for each of the plurality of virtual lanes; wherein one of the flow control packets is sent by the second port after the timer expires; (c) monitoring the amount of data removed from the receive segment of the second port; and (d) sending one of the flow control packets if the amount of data exceeds the threshold value or if the timer set in step (b) has expired.