---
title: "Flow control"
description: "Understand how flow control works with Slic."
url: https://docs.icerpc.dev/icerpc/slic-transport/flow-control
docs_index: https://docs.icerpc.dev/llms.txt
---

> For an index of every page, see [llms.txt](https://docs.icerpc.dev/llms.txt).

# Flow control

Understand how flow control works with Slic.

## Connection-level flow control

Slic doesn't implement flow control at the connection level. Instead, it relies on the underlying duplex connection flow control.

## Stream-level flow control

Slic provides stream-level flow control. The sending of data on a stream is paused when the peer doesn't consume data fast enough from this stream.

Slic's stream-level flow control is similar to the stream flow control provided by [HTTP/2](https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc7540#page-22). A flow control window defines the amount of data the receiving-side of a stream is willing to accept. A sender must stop sending data over the stream once the window is full. Sending more data is a protocol error. The sender can resume sending data only after receiving a [StreamWindowUpdate](https://docs.icerpc.dev/icerpc/slic-transport/protocol-frames.md#streamwindowupdate-frame) frame.

The `StreamWindowUpdate` frame carries the amount of additional data the receiver is willing to accept. The receiver can send this frame at any time to increase the stream window size in the sender.

The initial window size is specified by the [InitialStreamWindowSize](https://docs.icerpc.dev/icerpc/slic-transport/connection-establishment.md#connection-establishment-parameters) parameter exchanged on connection establishment.

The `StreamWindowUpdate` frame provides enough flexibility to implement different strategies to adjust the window size after stream creation. A common strategy is to implement dynamic window scaling where the window size is computed using the round-trip time (RTT) of a [Ping](https://docs.icerpc.dev/icerpc/slic-transport/protocol-frames.md#ping-frame) frame. Such a strategy can improve throughput. A more basic strategy is to use a fixed window size and send a `StreamWindowUpdate` frame when a size threshold is reached.

## Stream concurrency

Each side of the connection defines how many streams it's willing to accept with the [MaxBidirectionalStreams](https://docs.icerpc.dev/icerpc/slic-transport/connection-establishment.md#connection-establishment-parameters) and [MaxUnidirectionalStreams](https://docs.icerpc.dev/icerpc/slic-transport/connection-establishment.md#connection-establishment-parameters) parameters transmitted during connection establishment. Stream creation is paused when this limit is reached. For example, if the peer's `MaxBidirectionalStreams` parameter is 5 and 5 bidirectional streams are opened, the creation of the next bidirectional stream is delayed until one of the streams is closed. Opening an additional stream when the limit is reached is a protocol error.