Patent ID: 7441267
Filing Date: 2008-10-21
Classification: H04L

Abstract:
1. A method for controlling the flow of a stream of data across a network interface, comprising the steps of: storing a key material in a key storage area; providing a cryptographic engine configured to use at least a portion of the key material to encrypt a data packet from the stream; generating a report comprising an indicator of a remaining encryption capacity, wherein the indicator of the remaining encryption capacity comprises a quantitative measure representative of a capacity of the cryptographic engine to encrypt subsequent data packets from the stream; and for each data packet in the stream, determining a traffic class for the data packet, computing a probability of discard (Pd) for the data packet based on the indicator of the remaining encryption capacity from the report and the traffic class, discarding the data packet if the probability of discard (Pd) is greater than or equal to a random number, and queuing the data packet for transmission across the network interface if the probability of discard (Pd) is less than the random number.