Patent ID: 8601118

Claim:
A method performed by a network device, the method comprising: receiving, by the network device, a request for a lawful intercept (LI) session, the LI session being associated with a particular priority of a set of priority levels; determining, by the network device, whether a maximum quantity of LI sessions has been initiated by the network device; initiating, by the network device and when the maximum quantity of LI sessions has not been initiated, a new LI session based on the request; determining, by the network device and when the maximum quantity of LI sessions has been initiated, whether at least one LI session exists that is associated with a lower priority than the particular priority; terminating, by the network device and when the at least one LI session associated with the lower priority exists, a particular LI session associated with a lowest priority, when terminating the particular LI session, the method includes: selecting a set of existing LI sessions associated with the lowest priority, determining whether at least one LI session, in the selected set of existing LI sessions, is associated with an invalid target, and selecting, when at least one LI session is associated with the invalid target, the at least one LI session associated with an invalid target as the particular LI session to terminate; initiating, by the network device, the new LI session based on the received request and based on terminating the particular LI session associated with the lowest priority; and dropping, by the network device and when the at least one LI session associated with the lower priority does not exist, the received request without initiating the new LI session.