Congestion control in frame relay networks using explicit binary feedback

The author describes explicit binary feedback, a congestion management technique that operates over a wide range of operating conditions in connectionless networks as well as across frame relay networks. It relies upon a one-bit indicator in each frame which probes the congestion state of all network resources that it encounters. If any node is congested, then the end-to-end virtual circuit user reduces its demand; if no congestion is seen, the user may increase demand. This adjustment can be performed in the data link layer elements of procedure or in the transport layer, using window size as a surrogate for offered data rate