Patent ID: 7609634

Claim:
An apparatus for enforcing communication traffic restrictions for a group of communication links, the apparatus comprising: a communication traffic processor for executing modules and an associated memory for storing instructions for said modules, said modules comprising a communication traffic policing module configured to allow transfer of communication traffic associated with respective communication links of the group at transfer rates up to respective per-link transfer rates for the communication links by assigning per-link tokens to communication traffic transmission data units that are associated with the communication links and are received at respective expected times, and to allow transfer of additional communication traffic associated with a communication link of the group, above the per-link transfer rate for the communication link, where a combined transfer rate of communication traffic associated with the communication links of the group would not exceed a maximum aggregate transfer rate for the group, by assigning a per-link token for one of the communication links of the group, which token remains unused and becomes available for assignment to a communication traffic transmission data unit associated with another communication link of the group where no communication traffic transmission data unit associated with the one of the communication links is received at the expected time for the one of the communication links, to another communication traffic transmission data unit to which no per-link token has been assigned, and by discarding the unused per-link token where no other communication traffic transmission data unit to which to assign the unused per-link token is available when the unused token becomes available for assignment to a communication traffic transmission data unit associated with another communication link of the group.