US Patent 7869366 Application-aware rate control

A method for controlling data rate at an application layer. The method, in a particular implementation, includes identifying an application-layer message corresponding to a network application, wherein the application-layer message is transmitted in a first direction from a first host to a remote host and is operable to cause the remote host to transmit one or more responsive messages to the first host. A queuing delay is computed for the application-layer message and transmission of the application-layer message across a link to the remote host is delayed according to the queuing delay wherein the computed queuing delay is based at least in part on utilization of the link in a direction opposite the first direction of network traffic corresponding to the network application.