Patent ID: 7944834

Claim:
A system for dynamically assigning policers to links, comprising: an aggregation access element connected to a plurality of links; a plurality of policers; a central controller in selective communication with the aggregation access element, the central controller being configured to determine a manner in which two or more of the plurality of links are allocated to share traffic of a virtual connection, the central controller further configured to assign one policer to each such allocated link; wherein the central controller is further configured to provide tokens to each assigned policer, the total number of tokens provided to the assigned policers representing a committed information rate bandwidth allocated to the virtual connection, and wherein each assigned policer is configured to send a message to the central controller concerning a number of tokens consumed by the virtual connection over that link, and wherein the central controller is configured to keep a current status of the number of tokens for each of the plurality of links allocated to the virtual connection and distribute the current status to each of the assigned policers.