Patent ID: 7551556

Claim:
A method of transmitting arrived data packets, the method including use of a sliding window having a fixed length to meter the flow of data packets, an arrived data packet being transmitted or discarded based on the metered flow, wherein the sliding window is divided into a plurality of subwindows of equal length including a current subwindow and an oldest subwindow, for the sliding window and each of the subwindows at least one of the following are performed: determining a count of transmitted bytes, determining a count of transmitted packets, determining a count of discarded bytes, and determining a count of discarded packets, and a data packet is transmitted or discarded based on the counts for the current subwindow and for the sliding window; and for an arrived data packet the count of transmitted bytes and or or, respectively, the count of transmitted packets for the current subwindow is or are, respectively, compared to the difference of an allowed maximum number of transmitted bytes and or or, respectively, an allowed maximum number of transmitted packets and the count of transmitted bytes and or or, respectively, the count of transmitted packets for the sliding window.