Method of detecting and recovering from signaling congestion in an asynchronous transfer mode network

The present invention relates generally to data communications networks and more particularly relates to a method for detecting and recovering from signaling congestion in a connection oriented network such as an Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) network. A method of detecting a signaling congestion situation in a transmitter within a communications switch and for handling and recovering from the congestion. The method functions to (1) monitor the level of the transmit queue for each output port and (2) to monitor the level of the signaling message buffer memory pool for all ports. When the levels of either pass predetermined thresholds, the signaling congestion state is declared. Once the signaling congestion state is declared, the call control or equivalent entity in the communications device stops routing new calls from/towards all ports that are in the signaling congestion state. The call control continues to handle existing calls from/towards ports that are in the signaling congestion state.