Patent ID: 8589503

Claim:
A computer implemented network traffic prioritization method comprising: receiving communications, the communications comprising data being communicated from a sending device to a destination device through a network; parsing the communications based upon one or more transmission protocol associated with the communications, the parsing being operable to identify one or more originating entities and one or more destination entities; identifying a reputation associated with at least one of the one or more originating entities and a reputation associated with at least one of the one or more destination entities, wherein the identification comprises: requesting the reputation associated with the at least one of the one or more originating entities from a local reputation store, wherein in response to determining that the request for the reputation associated with the at least one of one or more originating entities from the local reputation store is unsuccessful, querying a reputation system for the reputation associated with the at least one of the one or more originating entities; requesting the reputation associated with the at least one of the one or more destination entities from the local reputation store, wherein in response to determining that the request for the reputation associated with the at least one of the of the one or more destination entities from the local reputation store is unsuccessful, querying the reputation system for the reputation associated with the at least one of the one or more destination entities; applying a prioritization policy to the communications, the prioritization policy being operable to prioritize transmissions based upon the reputation associated with the at least one of the one or more originating entities and the reputation associated with the at least one of the one or more destination entities; and transmitting the communications based upon the applied prioritization policy.