Patent ID: 8589571

Claim:
A method for screening a request to establish a SIP session, comprising: receiving a first request to establish a SIP session at a network node of an internet protocol network and incrementing a received request counter to maintain a total request count; determining whether the first request includes a resource priority parameter with a first elevated priority value and, if so, incrementing an elevated priority request counter to maintain a priority request count; comparing a priority request ratio to a predetermined priority request threshold, wherein the priority request ratio is indicative of a ratio of the priority request count to the total request count; and processing each first request that includes the elevated priority value using more comprehensive screening on condition that the priority request ratio exceeds the predetermined priority request threshold, allowing processing for each first request that includes the first elevated priority value to continue in accordance with the first elevated priority value on condition that the priority request ratio does not exceed the predetermined priority request threshold, and allowing processing for each first request that does not include the first elevated priority value to continue in accordance with a routine priority.