Patent ID: 7464409

Claim:
A data communication system comprising: a plurality of hosts; a plurality of edge nodes; at least one core node; and a coordinator for identifying flooding data transmitted from at least one offending host and intended for at least one threatened host; and generating a data rate limit that is communicated to at least one of the plurality of edge nodes defining an entry node; the data rate limit being based upon (a) an observed rate of transmission of flooding data transmitted from the offending host to the entry node and (b) a desired rate of transmission of flooding data transmitted to the threatened host from at least one other of the plurality of edge nodes defining an exit node; wherein the coordinator (a) determines which of the plurality of edge nodes define entry nodes and (b) generates for each entry node a unique entry node n-tuple comprising the data rate limit and an entry node coefficient, the data rate limit thus defining a unique entry node data rate limit for each entry node; wherein the data rate limit is iteratively revised at each entry node by computing a base rate and setting the revised data rate limit equal to the minimum of the entry node data rate limit and the product of the base rate times the entry node coefficient.