Method for flow controlling ATM traffic

摘要

Permission based flow control is implemented in a computer network having at least a downstream, intermediate and upstream network device by receiving credits at the intermediate network device from the downstream network device and granting credits from the intermediate network device to the upstream network device based at least in part upon the credits received at the intermediate network device from the downstream network device. Credit chaining as described above is employed to permit the granting of the right to transmit downstream to be predicated upon buffer availability downstream of the next downstream network device. Via the use of credit chaining, high utilization of network resources is achieved with minimal loss of data traffic.