It's good to distinguish between porting and braking.

Both require sufficient muzzle pressure in order to make any sort of difference.

Porting can affect muzzle rise or flip.
Porting does not require a great deal of wall thickness.

Braking affects the rearward movement of the rifle (the recoil impulse).
In order for braking to work, the system needs wall thickness - it needs *surface area*

Some rifle barrels have enough wall thickness to allow a braking effect by way of properly designed and applied porting. The radial brake is a very effective type of porting application that can give excellent braking effect.

These radial brakes need wall thickness in order to do their job.
The forward-moving exhaust gas and ejecta hit the walls of the porting and basically pull the rifle forward against the rearward force of recoil.

There are other types of braking, but the example of the radial brake most closely resembles the job done in the rifle shown earlier in this thread.