Congestion control mechanism for SSCOP protocol

A congestion control method for managing message flow between a receiver and a plurality of customer premises equipment (CPE) units, wherein each CPE unit is provided with a user network interface (UN1), comprising the steps of:

• initializing, in the receiver, a buffer credit pool for each CPE unit said buffer credit pool corresponding to a maximum number of messages that may be transmitted by said CPE units in a first select time period said buffer credit pool being 200 and said first select time period being 1 hour;
• decrementing said buffer credit pool responsive to the messages received in said receiver from a select CPE unit corresponding thereto;
• if the number of messages transmitted from said select CPE unit remains below said initial buffer credit pool for said select CPE unit, incrementing a message sequence indicator in said receiver responsive to the messages sent by said select CPE unit until said buffer credit pool is re-initialized by said receiver at the expiration of said first select time period;
• otherwise, if the messages transmitted from said select CPE unit exhaust said buffer credit pool for said select CPE unit, incrementing said message sequence indicator by an iterative variable, responsive to additional messages from said select CPE unit, for every second select time period, until said iterative variable reaches a maximum value, and thereafter, re-initializing said buffer credit pool by said receiver at the expiration of said first select time period;
• and
• transmitting said message sequence indicator from said receiver to said select CPE unit so as to dynamically control a message transmit window associated therewith.