Patent ID: 7546371

Claim:
A method for processing communication sessions within a security device, the method comprising: maintaining a dependency list of communication sessions, wherein the dependency list specifies an order in which to process the communications sessions, and wherein for each communication session the dependency list specifies an amount of memory currently reserved for the communication session; receiving a request to reserve memory for processing a new communication session; determining whether an amount of memory required to process the new communication session is greater than a total amount of memory reserved for the communication sessions already listed within the dependency list; when the amount of memory required to process the new communication session is greater than the total amount of memory reserved for the communication sessions already listed within the dependency list, reserving memory for the new communication session in an amount equal to a difference between the amount of memory required to process the new communication session and the total amount of memory currently reserved for the communication sessions already listed to guarantee that processing of the new communication session can be completed upon processing the communication sessions already listed within the dependency list; and processing the communication sessions with the security device in accordance with the dependency list.