flowkontroll

Flowkontroll refers to mechanisms and strategies used to regulate the rate of transfer of a resource from a sender to a receiver, with the aim of preventing overflow, ensuring data integrity, and maintaining system stability. It is applied across several domains, including digital communications and industrial process control, and can involve software protocols, hardware components, or a combination of both.

In digital communications, flowkontroll describes methods that constrain how much data the sender may transmit before receiving an acknowledgment or credit. Common schemes include stop-and-wait, where the sender transmits a single unit and waits for acknowledgment; sliding window, which uses a moving window of unacknowledged data; and credit-based flow control, where the receiver advertises available buffer space. Transmission protocols such as TCP implement flow-control by using the receiver’s advertised window to pace the sender, often in combination with congestion-control mechanisms to adjust to network conditions.

In industrial and process-control contexts, flowkontroll involves regulating the flow rate of liquids or gases using actuated valves, pumps, and feedback from flow sensors. Closed-loop control systems, frequently employing PID controllers, adjust actuators to track a desired flow rate or pressure, compensating for disturbances, changes in demand, or upstream conditions.

Flowkontroll is distinct from congestion control: flowkontroll focuses on the capacity and coordination of the communicating endpoints or local resources, while congestion control addresses resource sharing and fairness across a network under varying load.

See also: Flow control (data communications), Congestion control, PID control, Actuator, Buffer management.