an approach for error flow control in a communications system involves receiving a plurality of frames of data ; determining in said plurality of frames of data , two or more contiguous defective frames of data , the two or more contiguous defective frames of data being followed by at least one frame of data in said plurality of frames that is not defective ; forming a group reject message indicative of a range of the two or more contiguous defective frames ; transmitting the group reject message ; and receiving replacement frames , the replacement frames corresponding to the two or more contiguous defective frames , wherein said at least one frame that is not defective is not received again in response to the group reject message .