Patent ID: 9485118
Filing Date: 2016-11-01
CPC Classification: H04L

Claim Text:
1. A method comprising: executing, with a control unit that provides a control plane of a network device, protocols each associated with one or more protocol groups, wherein each protocol group of the one or more protocol groups is associated with a goal weight that defines a share of host-bound path resources available to the protocol group for a host-bound path from a forwarding unit of the network device to the control unit, and wherein at least one protocol of the protocols comprises a routing protocol; receiving, with the forwarding unit of the network device, a plurality of packet flows that each comprises host-bound traffic destined for the control unit, wherein the forwarding unit comprises a forwarding unit processor and a forwarding component that processes the packet flows and forwards the packet flows to the control unit via the host-bound path of the network device, wherein a first packet flow of the packet flows is associated with a first protocol group of the protocol groups associated with a first goal weight; with the forwarding unit processor and in response to detecting congestion of the host-bound path from the forwarding component to the control unit that is caused by forwarding the packet flows, determining that host-bound traffic for the first protocol group exceeds the first goal weight; with the forwarding unit processor and in response to the determining, selecting the first packet flow of the packet flows to constrain based at least on the association of the first packet flow with the first protocol group and configuring a policer of the forwarding component with one or more identifying features for the first packet flow to constrain a rate at which the forwarding component forwards the first packet flow to the control unit.