Patent ID: 8589593

Claim:
A method for controlling processing of messages for a plurality of protocol instances, comprising: receiving a plurality of messages having respective associations with at least one of the protocol instances and being for a plurality of processors; generating a plurality of processing requests based on the plurality of messages, the plurality of processing requests identifying the protocol instances associated with the respective plurality of messages; queuing the plurality of processing requests in a plurality of queues based on the identified protocol instances associated with the respective plurality of processing requests, the plurality of queues being assoiciated with the respective plurality of protocol instances; and servicing the plurality of queues in a manner for arbitrating access by the plurality of queues to the plurality of processors for processing the plurality of messages, the servicing of the queues comprising: identifying a first queue of the plurality of queues having at least one processing request queued therein; reading a first processing request from the first queue of the plurality of queues; determining a first processor of the plurality of processors associated with the first processing request, the first processing request being associated with a first protocol instance of the plurality of protocol instances; and initiating processing by the first processor of a first message associated with the first protocol instance identified by the first processing request.