Method and apparatus for flow control

A network device, comprising:

• interface circuitry configured to receive incoming packets from a network and transmit outgoing packets to the network via interfaces;
• and
• packet processing circuitry configured to:
• detect a congestion associated with packets that are sent from a source device originating a packet flow, the packets being forwarded by the network device to a destination device in the network;
• generate a notification packet that is destined to the source device, the notification packet being indicative of the packet flow to which the packets belong and the presence of congestion;
• transmit the packets to the destination device via a first interface;
• and
• send to the source device originating the packet flow, via a second interface the notification packet indicative of the packet flow and of the presence of congestion to cause the source device to reduce a packet transmission rate of the packet flow,
• wherein the packet processing circuitry is further configured to:
• generate a replication packet of a packet of the packets;
• and
• generate the notification packet based on the replication packet.

A method for congestion notification in a network, comprising:

• receiving, at a network device, packets that are sent from a source device originating a packet flow, the packets to be forwarded by the network device to a destination device in the network via interfaces;
• detecting a congestion associated with the packets;
• generating a notification packet that is destined to the source device, the notification packet being indicative of the packet flow to which the packets belongs and presence of congestion, and the notification packet being generated to include an identifier corresponding to the interface associated with the packet flow;
• transmitting the packets to the destination device via a first interface;
• and
• sending to the source device originating the packet flow, via a second interface, the notification packet indicative of the packet flow and of the presence of congestion, to cause the source device to reduce a packet transmission rate of the packet flow.

A method for congestion notification in a network, comprising:

• receiving, at a network device, packets that are sent from a source device originating a packet flow, the packets to be forwarded by the network device to a destination device in the network;
• detecting a congestion associated with the packets;
• generating a notification packet that is destined to the source device, the notification packet being indicative of the packet flow to which the packets belongs and the presence of congestion;
• transmitting the packets to the destination device via a first interface;
• and
• sending to the source device originating the packet flow, via a second interface, the notification packet indicative of the packet flow and of the presence of congestion, to cause the source device to reduce a packet transmission rate of the packet flow,
• wherein generating the notification packet that is destined to the source device comprises:
• generating a replication packet based on a packet of the packets;
• and
• generating the notification packet based on the replication packet.