Marking packets based on egress rate to indicate congestion

A network device, comprising:

• a forwarding database;
• a forwarding engine coupled to the forwarding database, the forwarding engine being configured to forward packets to ports for transmission, the ports being determined by the forwarding engine using forwarding information residing in the forwarding database;
• a rate measurement circuit that is configured to measure respective egress rates at which respective data is being transmitted via respective ports;
• a marking ratio determination circuit configured to select respective marking ratios based on respective measured egress rates, the marking ratios for marking packets to be transmitted via the respective ports to indicate respective levels of congestion corresponding to the respective ports, wherein different marking ratios correspond to different measured egress rates;
• and
• a packet editor circuit configured to mark selected packets to be transmitted via respective ports, wherein the packets to be marked are selected according to the respective selected marking ratios, and wherein the respective selected marking ratios indicate to other communication devices that respective network paths via which the selected packets travelled experienced congestion, and the respective marking ratios indicate respective levels of congestion.