Patent ID: 8000244

Claim:
A system comprising: a plurality of first rate limiters associated with a first maximum processing rate associated with a first traffic flow of a first traffic class; a plurality of packet processors to process the first traffic flow, wherein each of the plurality of packet processors comprises one of the plurality of first rate limiters; and wherein the plurality of first rate limiters are to limit a first aggregate rate of processing of the first traffic flow among the plurality of packet processors to the first maximum processing rate through communication of messages between the plurality of first rate limiters in the plurality of packet processors, wherein the plurality of first rate limiters comprise a floating token bucket associated with the plurality of first rate limiters, wherein the plurality of packet processors are to limit processing of the first traffic flow based upon tokens contained in the floating token bucket, wherein the floating token bucket is to be passed among the plurality of packet processors, wherein the plurality of packet processors are to process the traffic flow in response to the floating token bucket including at least one token, and wherein the plurality of packet processors are to remove a number of tokens from the floating token bucket corresponding to the amount of traffic to be transmitted by the plurality of packet processors.