Patent ID: 8233488

Claim:
A method for network address translation, the method comprising: providing a first network address translation table and a second network address translation table, the first and second network address translation tables both including entries for network traffic between a public network and a private network and associated with a public Internet Protocol address, the first network address translation table including entries for a low priority subset of the network traffic between a public network and a private network and the second network address translation table including entries for a high priority subset of the network traffic between the public network and the private network; enforcing a first limit on the number of processor cycles used for maintenance of the first network address translation table and a second limit on the number of processor cycles used for maintenance of the second network address translation table; receiving a first network packet of a first network traffic type; determining the first network packet corresponds to the low priority network traffic based upon the first network packet being of the first network traffic type; adding a first entry to the first network address translation table; removing the first entry from the first network address translation table after a first timeout interval and removing the second entry from the second network address translation table after a second timeout interval; and providing an interface for altering the first timeout interval or the second timeout interval.