Patent ID: 8422396

Claim:
A rate monitoring apparatus using a token bucket algorithm controlling a packet flow over a network, the rate monitoring apparatus comprising: a packet information extraction unit receiving packets including packet information and extracting the packet information from the received packets; a first packet information storage unit storing the packet information; a second packet information storage unit storing the packet information; a token identifying information generating unit generating identification information used to supply a created token; a first token identifying information storage unit storing the identification information used to supply the created token, generated by the token identifying information generating unit; a second token identifying information storage unit storing the identification information used to supply the created token, generated by the token identifying information generating unit; and an operation unit reading out the packet information from one of the first packet information storage unit and the second packet information storage unit and reading out the identification information used to supply the created token from one of the first token identifying information storage unit and the second token identifying information storage unit, wherein the packet information extraction unit stores the extracted packet information in one of the first packet information storage unit and the second packet information storage unit, the operation unit reads out the packet information from the second packet information storage unit at a timing at which the packet information extraction unit writes the packet information to the first packet information storage unit, and reads out the packet information from the first packet information storage unit at a timing at which the packet information extraction unit writes the packet information to the second packet information storage unit, the token identifying information generating unit stores the generated identification information used to supply the created token in one of the first token identifying information storage unit and the second token identifying information storage unit, and wherein the operation unit reads out the identification information used to supply the created token from the second token identifying information storage unit at a timing at which the token identifying information generating unit writes the identification information used to supply the created token to the first token identifying information storage unit, and reads out the identification information used to supply the created token from the first token identifying information storage unit at a timing at which the token identifying information generating unit writes the identification information used to supply the created token to the second token identifying information storage unit.