Patent ID: 7324451

Claim:
A method of message discard for segmented message traffic in an aggregated message traffic stream of a communications network, the aggregated message traffic stream comprising a plurality of constituent message traffic streams thereof, each constituent message traffic stream having segmented message traffic which comprises segmented messages composed of formative segmented message units thereof, the said method comprising the steps of: (a) maintaining, for each said constituent message traffic stream, an indication of whether a currently received segmented message unit of each said constituent message traffic stream is to be subjected to message discard; (b) determining, upon each arrival of a segmented message unit of the aggregated message traffic stream, whether a currently received segmented message unit of the constituent message traffic stream denotes a delineation between two segmented messages thereof; (c) determining whether a current condition of traffic congestion exists as to the aggregated message traffic stream; and (d) utilizing the indication of step (a), the determination of step (b) and the determination of step (c) in determining whether a next to be received segmented message unit of the constituent message traffic stream is to be subjected to message discard.