A method of enabling transmission of a time-critical control signal event in a sync frame period, such as a pause signal that is generated when the receive buffer of an Ethernet switch is filled with packets beyond a threshold due to congestion of uplink asynchronous data, is disclosed. To transmit time-critical information in a synchronous Ethernet system, a current transmission period is checked upon detection of a time-critical event. If the current transmission period is a sync frame period, time-critical control information is generated, inserted into the first sub-sync frame after the time-critical event, and transmitted. If the current transmission period is an async frame period, a control frame including the time-critical control information is generated and transmitted.