Apparatuses and methods are described that provide for credit based flow control in a network in which a public buffer is supported at a receiver node, where a transmitter node can control the use of the public buffer. In particular, the transmitter node determines a buffer credit value (TCRi) for each virtual lane of the transmitter node. The buffer credit value (TCRi) is negative (e.g., less than 0) in an instance in which a respective virtual lane private buffer is fully used and thus reflects a loan of credits from the public buffer. In addition, the transmitter node knows the needed buffer size per virtual lane for transmitting a packet in advance based on the round trip time (RTT) and maximum transmission unit (MTU) for the packet and is precluded from consuming more space on the public buffer than required to meet RTT.