Patent ID: 7460536

Claim:
A method for applying service levels to a plurality of packets of data received via a plurality of connections, each session comprising one or more sessions, the method comprising: for each session in the one or more sessions, associating a service level with the session: receiving user identification information via a connection; in response to receiving the user identification information, assigning a session identifier to the session; identifying a service level associated with the user identification information; and associating the service level with the session identifier, wherein the service level is determined at least in part by the user identification information; and associating a connection identifier and a protocol of the connection with the session identifier; for each data packet of the plurality of data packets, applying a service level to the data packet received via one of the plurality of connections, wherein applying the service level to the data packet further comprises: determining a communication protocol associated with the data packet; determining the connection identifier associated with the connection; determining a session identifier of a session associated with the data packet using the connection identifier and the communication protocol; and determining a service level for the data packet associated with the session identifier; and transferring the data packet at the determined service level.