diff --git a/akka-remote/src/main/resources/reference.conf b/akka-remote/src/main/resources/reference.conf
index 98a7c75329..3399f68639 100644
--- a/akka-remote/src/main/resources/reference.conf
+++ b/akka-remote/src/main/resources/reference.conf
@@ -37,8 +37,16 @@ akka {
   }
 
   remote {
+
+    # Which implementation of akka.remote.RemoteSupport to use
+    # default is a TCP-based remote transport based on Netty
     transport = "akka.remote.netty.NettyRemoteSupport"
 
+    # In case of increased latency / overflow how long
+    # should we wait (blocking the sender) until we deem the send to be cancelled?
+    # 0 means "never backoff", any positive number will indicate time to block at most.
+    backoff-timeout = 0ms
+
     use-compression = off
 
     # Generate your own with '$AKKA_HOME/scripts/generate_config_with_secure_cookie.sh'
diff --git a/akka-remote/src/main/scala/akka/remote/RemoteExtension.scala b/akka-remote/src/main/scala/akka/remote/RemoteExtension.scala
index 67f5b6f8c9..c8ce919944 100644
--- a/akka-remote/src/main/scala/akka/remote/RemoteExtension.scala
+++ b/akka-remote/src/main/scala/akka/remote/RemoteExtension.scala
@@ -23,6 +23,7 @@ class RemoteSettings(val config: Config, val systemName: String) extends Extensi
   val RemoteSystemDaemonAckTimeout = Duration(config.getMilliseconds("akka.remote.remote-daemon-ack-timeout"), MILLISECONDS)
   val InitalDelayForGossip = Duration(config.getMilliseconds("akka.remote.gossip.initialDelay"), MILLISECONDS)
   val GossipFrequency = Duration(config.getMilliseconds("akka.remote.gossip.frequency"), MILLISECONDS)
+  val BackoffTimeout = Duration(config.getMilliseconds("akka.remote.backoff-timeout"), MILLISECONDS)
 
   // TODO cluster config will go into akka-cluster/reference.conf when we enable that module
   val ClusterName = getString("akka.cluster.name")
diff --git a/akka-remote/src/main/scala/akka/remote/netty/NettyRemoteSupport.scala b/akka-remote/src/main/scala/akka/remote/netty/NettyRemoteSupport.scala
index 3832d0b8fa..77b805df75 100644
--- a/akka-remote/src/main/scala/akka/remote/netty/NettyRemoteSupport.scala
+++ b/akka-remote/src/main/scala/akka/remote/netty/NettyRemoteSupport.scala
@@ -18,14 +18,14 @@ import org.jboss.netty.handler.timeout.{ ReadTimeoutHandler, ReadTimeoutExceptio
 import org.jboss.netty.util.{ TimerTask, Timeout, HashedWheelTimer }
 import scala.collection.mutable.HashMap
 import java.net.InetSocketAddress
-import java.util.concurrent._
 import java.util.concurrent.atomic._
 import akka.AkkaException
 import akka.event.Logging
-import locks.ReentrantReadWriteLock
 import org.jboss.netty.channel._
 import akka.actor.ActorSystemImpl
 import org.jboss.netty.handler.execution.{ ExecutionHandler, OrderedMemoryAwareThreadPoolExecutor }
+import java.util.concurrent._
+import locks.ReentrantReadWriteLock
 
 class RemoteClientMessageBufferException(message: String, cause: Throwable = null) extends AkkaException(message, cause) {
   def this(msg: String) = this(msg, null)
@@ -73,7 +73,9 @@ abstract class RemoteClient private[akka] (
    */
   private def send(request: (Any, Option[ActorRef], ActorRef)): Unit = {
     try {
-      currentChannel.write(request).addListener(
+      val channel = currentChannel
+      val f = channel.write(request)
+      f.addListener(
         new ChannelFutureListener {
           def operationComplete(future: ChannelFuture) {
             if (future.isCancelled) {
@@ -83,6 +85,12 @@ abstract class RemoteClient private[akka] (
             }
           }
         })
+      // Check if we should back off
+      if (!channel.isWritable) {
+        val backoff = remoteSupport.remote.remoteSettings.BackoffTimeout
+        if (backoff.length > 0 && !f.await(backoff.length, backoff.unit))
+          f.setFailure(new TimeoutException("akka.remote.backoff-timeout occurred, overpressure on RemoteTransport or nonresponsive server"))
+      }
     } catch {
       case e: Exception ⇒ remoteSupport.notifyListeners(RemoteClientError(e, remoteSupport, remoteAddress))
     }
diff --git a/akka-remote/src/test/scala/akka/remote/RemoteConfigSpec.scala b/akka-remote/src/test/scala/akka/remote/RemoteConfigSpec.scala
index 1132d1a733..cd8c3c8eb5 100644
--- a/akka-remote/src/test/scala/akka/remote/RemoteConfigSpec.scala
+++ b/akka-remote/src/test/scala/akka/remote/RemoteConfigSpec.scala
@@ -15,6 +15,7 @@ class RemoteConfigSpec extends AkkaSpec("akka.cluster.nodename = node1") {
       getString("akka.remote.transport") must equal("akka.remote.netty.NettyRemoteSupport")
       getString("akka.remote.secure-cookie") must equal("")
       getBoolean("akka.remote.use-passive-connections") must equal(true)
+      getMilliseconds("akka.remote.backoff-timeout") must equal(0)
       // getMilliseconds("akka.remote.remote-daemon-ack-timeout") must equal(30 * 1000)
 
       //akka.remote.server