---
title: "Chapter 08: Reactive Streams, Flow Control & Dynamic Load Shedding | TinyCTO Distributed Systems Canon"
description: "Defending microservices against cascading backpressure collapse: pull-based subscriber demand contracts (`request(n)`), Little’s Law concurrency limits, TCP Vegas gradient algorithms, and CoDel queue management."
image: "https://tinycto.tv/assets/distributed-systems/distributed_systems_manuals_og.jpg"
canonicalUrl: "https://tinycto.tv/distributed-systems/manuals/08-reactive-backpressure-flow-control"
locale: "en"
---

# Chapter 08: Reactive Streams, Flow Control & Dynamic Load Shedding

> **Canonical Distributed Systems Engineering Field Manual**
> **Theorem Citation**: Reactive Streams Specification / Little’s Law ($L = \lambda W$) | **Read Time**: 23 min read | **Maturity Target**: SCALED

Defending microservices against cascading backpressure collapse: pull-based subscriber demand contracts (`request(n)`), Little’s Law concurrency limits, TCP Vegas gradient algorithms, and CoDel queue management.

### Core Concepts & Consistency Models

- `Reactive Streams`
- `Pull Backpressure`
- `Adaptive Concurrency Limits`
- `Little’s Law`
- `CoDel Active Queue Management`

### Canon Surfaces & Navigation

- **Manuals Library**: https://tinycto.tv/distributed-systems/manuals
- **18 Reference Architectures**: https://tinycto.tv/distributed-systems/architectures
- **Topology & Sizer Wizard**: https://tinycto.tv/distributed-systems/wizard
- **Technology & Consensus Matrix**: https://tinycto.tv/distributed-systems/matrix

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