Patent ID: 9246828
Filing Date: 2016-01-26
CPC Classification: H04L

Claim Text:
1. A network device comprising: a distributed forwarding plane having a plurality of packet forwarding engines coupled by switch fabric, wherein each of the packet forwarding engines comprises: a service plane having at least one service card, the service card having a flow controller that receives sampled packets from the sampling units and generates flow records in accordance with sampled packets, wherein the sampling units monitor for changes in respective current packet rates at which the inbound packets are received on the interfaces of the packet forwarding engines and output messages informing the flow controller upon detecting changes in the current packet rates for the inbound packets on any of the interfaces that exceeds a threshold change in rate, and wherein, responsive to receiving a message indicating a change in rate for the inbound packets for one of the interfaces, the flow controller within the service plane computes an updated sampling rate for the interface for which the change in rate was detected and outputs a message to the forwarding plane to adjust the sampling rate applied by the sampling unit to the respective interface.