Method of regulating backpressure traffic in a packet switched network

A method of regulating backpressure traffic in a packet switched network comprised of a plurality of switching elements, each switching element having a local buffer memory associated therewith, at least one of the switching elements succeeding at least one other switching element in a particular transmission path, said at least one succeeding switching element having a congested local buffer memory, the method comprising the steps of:

• the succeeding switching element generating a backpressure signal;
• transmitting the backpressure signal from the succeeding switching element to the at least one other switching element;
• queuing packets destined for the succeeding switching element in the local buffer memory of the at least one other switching element in response to the backpressure signal;
• determining when the occupancy of the local buffer memory for the other switching element has exceeded a predetermined threshold;
• and
• in response to exceeding the predetermined threshold, the other switching element transmitting the queued packets to the succeeding switching element.