System and method for adapting a source rate

A method for operations at a communications controller, the method comprising:

• receiving information packets from a packet stream;
• determining congestion conditions at the communications controller;
• determining a repeating multi-packet marking pattern for the packet stream;
• determining if the repeating multi-packet marking pattern is equal to a rate-reduction-allowed marking pattern, wherein the rate-reduction-allowed marking pattern has a period of M information packets, where M is a positive integer value greater than or equal to two;
• if the communications controller is not experiencing congestion, transmitting the information packets over the packet stream to the receiver;
• if the communications controller is experiencing congestion and the marking pattern is not equal to the rate-reduction-allowed marking pattern, transmitting the information packets over the packet stream to a receiver;
• and
• if the communications controller is experiencing congestion and the marking pattern is equal to the rate-reduction-allowed marking pattern,
• marking at least one packet stream marked with the rate-reduction-allowed marking pattern with a rate-reduction-requested marking pattern, and
• transmitting information packets of the at least one packet stream marked with the rate-reduction requested marking pattern to the at least one packet stream's receiver.

A method for operations at a communications device, wherein the communications device is a receiver of information packets over a packet stream, the method comprising:

• receiving information packets from a packet stream;
• determining a source rate of the packet stream from the received information packets;
• determining a repeating multi-packet marking pattern of the packet stream, wherein the marking pattern has a period of M information packets, where M is a positive integer value greater than or equal to two;
• and
• transmitting a signal to a source of the information packets, wherein the signal is based on the marking pattern of the packet stream and the source rate of the packet stream.