Patent ID: 7832009

Claim:
A method comprising: storing a set of access control lists in a content addressable memory (CAM), each access control list specifying one or more conditions; performing one or more lookups in the CAM to identify a packet that causes a first access control list from the set of access control lists to be matched; determining a first threshold and a second threshold associated with the first access control list, the first threshold indicating a first data rate and the second threshold indicating a second data rate; determining a first time period and a second time period associated with the first access control list; determining if receipt of the packet causes the first threshold to be exceeded; upon determining that receipt of the packet causes the first threshold to be exceeded, dropping the packet and all subsequently received packets that cause the first access control list to be matched for the first period of time; determining if receipt of the packet causes the second threshold to be exceeded but does not cause the first threshold to be exceeded; and upon determining that receipt of the packet causes the second threshold to be exceeded but does not cause the first threshold to be exceeded, dropping the packet and, for the second period of time, dropping any subsequently received packet that causes the first access control list to be matched.