US Patent 7436773 Packet flow control in switched full duplex ethernet networks

A method, system, and computer program product for controlling data packet traffic flow into a link partner device such as an ethernet adapter. In one embodiment, an occupancy level of an adapter receive queue is monitored to detect a receive queue overrun or underrun condition or event. The detected overrun or underrun condition or event is utilized as the criteria for adjusting a pause time value within a pause time flow control frame. The pause time flow control frame is transmitted from the link partner device to a corresponding remote link partner device to pause data packet transmission in accordance with the adjusted pause time value.