In one embodiment, a method includes detecting packet congestion in a network device that includes a switch, and a plurality of components operable to transmit and receive data packets from and to the switch. The method includes, in response to detecting packet congestion, transmitting an Ethernet pause frame to at least one of the plurality of components, the at least one component identified as a source of a data packet that caused the packet congestion, and transmitting a backward congestion notification (BCN) packet to the at least one component, the BCN packet including some data payload of the data packet that caused the packet congestion. The method includes regulating an offending packet stream originated from the at least one component relative to a non-offending packet stream originated from the at least one component to lower traffic load of the offending packet stream relative to the non-offending packet stream, where the data packet that caused the packet congestion belonging to the offending packet stream.