Patent ID: 8295284
Filing Date: 2012-10-23
Classification: H04L

Abstract:
1. A method comprising: at a packet-forwarding engine for receiving packet flows and conditionally routing packets in the packet flows to one or more applications, receiving from a particular one of the applications a request that requests the packet-forwarding engine to route a particular one of the packet flows to the particular one of the applications and identifies one or more conditions for not routing particular ones of the packets in the particular one of the packet flows to the particular one of the applications; at the packet-forwarding engine, receiving a particular packet in the particular one of the packet flows; at the packet-forwarding engine, determining whether one or more of the conditions for not routing the particular packet to the particular one of the applications are met; at the packet-forwarding engine, routing or not routing the particular packet to the particular one of the applications based on the determination; and updating one or more metrics based on the particular packet, wherein: one of the metrics tracks a number of packets in the particular one of the packet flows routed to the particular one of the applications; and one of the conditions specifies that packets in the particular one of the packet flows are not to be routed to the particular one of the applications when the number of packets exceeds a predetermined value.