Push-back mechanism for pub/sub brokers

A messaging system for controlling message throughput rates of one or more publisher clients connectable to a broker device in a publish/subscribe network, the broker device operable to handle a matching of publications with subscriptions and operable to handle a distribution of the publications to the subscriber clients comprising:

• a determining component for determining an allocation of the broker device's message throughput for each publisher client;
• and
• a monitoring component for receiving the each publisher client's determined allocation from the determining component and gathering statistics of a message-producing rate of each publisher client and a message-consuming rate of each subscriber client connected to the broker device,
• wherein if the message-producing rate of a first publisher client exceeds the determined allocation, messages produced by the first publisher client are not accepted at the broker device and a first message is sent to the first publisher client such that the message-producing rate of the first publisher client is operable to be throttled.