MESSAGE PIGGYBACKING DURING TRANSPORT MEDIUM CONGESTION

A computer (30(1)) detects congestion (50, 80) on a network transport medium (32) and in response thereto refrains from sending any packets containing messages. These to be transmitted messages are instead stored (56, 84) by th e computer in memory (40). In one embodiment, each message addressed to the sa me destination addressee computer is stored (84) in a common buffer (38), with a different buffer being allocated to each identified destination addressee computer (30(2) and 30(3)) for the to be transmitted messages. In another embodiment, each such message is encapsulated (54) into a single packet (36) that is stored (56) in the reserved portion. When the congestion condition o n the transport medium subsides (58, 86), the one or more messages stored with in a given buffer are retrieved from memory and encapsulated (104) within a single packet (36) addressed to the destination addressee computer associate d with that given buffer. Alternatively, the stored single packet is retrieved from memory. That single packet is then sent (76, 106) over the transport medium to the identified destination addressee computer.