Patent ID: 8553539

Claim:
A packet routing system, comprising: a processor; a component configured to classify an incoming packet of a user session at an ingress port of the packet routing system; a resource map stored in a memory and configured to identify a plurality of resources in the packet routing system that are required to process the incoming packet from the ingress port to an egress port of the packet routing system, the resource map corresponding to the user session, wherein the resources are internal to the packet routing system and include at least one of the processor, a memory, virtual buffers, and an encryption engine; and a resource map manager configured to create the resource map when the incoming packet corresponds to a new user session, to determine an availability for each of the resources of the resource map for processing the incoming packet before any processing is performed on the incoming packet, and to drop the incoming packet when at least one of the plurality of resources is unavailable, wherein the resource map manager is configured to allow the incoming packet through a process path comprising processes that utilize a set of resources required for processing the incoming packet if none of the resources from the resource map indicates a congested status.