Patent ID: 8824297

Claim:
An apparatus, comprising: an ingress interface; an egress interface; and a storm controller coupled to the ingress interface and the egress interface, the storm controller being operable to determine whether to forward packets for a traffic flow received at the ingress interface to the egress interface based on a rate over a time period; wherein the storm controller forwards packets for the traffic flow while the rate exceeds a first threshold and is less than a second threshold while a predefined condition exits; wherein the storm controller limits traffic for the traffic flow to the first threshold while the rate exceeds the first threshold and the predefined condition does not exist; wherein the storm controller maintains data representative of credits available for each of a plurality of the traffic flows; wherein packets corresponding to traffic flow are forwarded while the associated traffic flow has credits available; wherein the storm controller subtracts credits corresponding to each traffic flow while an associated rate exceeds the first predetermined threshold; and wherein the storm controller adds credits corresponding to each traffic flow less when the associated rate is below a second predetermined threshold.