Patent ID: 7561515

Claim:
A method of traffic control in a networked user device, comprising: accessing a traffic flow policy associated with the networked user device, the policy to indicate a threshold traffic flow for packets associated with network interfaces of the networked user device, the network interfaces each having a network port and protocol, the policy to be implemented at the networked user device, wherein the policy indicates separate threshold traffic flows based on network port and protocol; rate-limiting at the networked user device with a policy enforcement module of the network interface devices of the networked user device, the traffic flow of packets based, at least in part, on the traffic flow policy, where the rate-limiting includes limiting the rate of traffic flow for one of the network interfaces at a different rate than traffic associated with a different network interface of the networked user device based on the port and protocol of each network interface; receiving a network alert indicating a potential threat on a network to which the network interface device is connected; and automatically operating in a degraded mode of operation with a low traffic flow or no traffic flow permissible for one or more network interfaces of the networked user device instead of the threshold indicated in the policy in response to receiving the network alert.