End-to-end credit allocation for source-to-destination data transmission

Abstract

An end-to-end credit allocation protocol in which a source can only send data to a destination if it has a sufficient number of credits that have been allocated to the source by that destination. If the source does not have any or a sufficient number of credits, it cannot send data and must request credits from the destination. The destination dynamically allocates credits to sources based on requests. The destination has a pool of credits to allocate, and can only satisfy a request (partially or completely) if the pool contains enough credits. Credits are taken from the pool when allocated to a source, and placed back in the pool when the credit has been used by the source and / or is no longer required by the source.

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