Lossless switching of traffic in a network device

A system for lossless switching of traffic in a network device may be implemented when a network switch is integrated into a gateway device, or with any other data source. A processor of the gateway device may receive queue depth information for queues of the network switch. The processor may prevent data from being transmitted to congested queues of the network switch, while allowing data to be transmitted to uncongested queues. In this manner, data loss can be avoided through the network switch for data sourced from the gateway device, such as audio-video data retrieved from a hard drive, audio-video data received from a tuner, etc. Furthermore, re-transmission at higher layers can be reduced. Since the subject system observes congestion for each individual queue, only traffic destined to that particular, congested, queue is affected, e.g. paused. Traffic to non-congested queues is not affected, regardless of traffic class or egress port.