Patent ID: 8654945

Claim:
A communication system comprising: a call handler configured to process incoming call set up signaling received from a communication network for setting up an incoming call; a workload controller having hardware and configured to determine a workload of at least one processing resource accessible by the communication system, wherein the call handler is responsive to instruction from the workload controller to influence blocking establishment of at least one communication channel of the communication system, wherein the instruction is in response to the determined workload of the at least one processing resource, wherein the workload controller is configured to instruct blocking of a number of communication channels or a percentage of communication channels as a function of a current rate of consumption of communication channels, wherein different non-zero communication channels or different non-zero percentages of communication channels are blocked for different current rates of consumption of communication channels, wherein each blocked communication channel is unavailable for use in setting up the incoming call, and wherein the workload controller is configured to unblock a predetermined number of communication channels or a predetermined percentage of communication channels in response to a current rate of release of communication channels; and a non-transitory storage medium to store a database including data for respective ones of the communication channels of the communication system, wherein the data includes indicators to indicate whether respective ones of the communication channels have been blocked, wherein a particular one of the indicators has a first value to indicate that the corresponding communication channel is blocked and a second value to indicate that the corresponding communication channel is not blocked.