Patent Document ID: 7796518
Application ID: 12094920
Patent Flag: 1

Claim One:
1. A method of policing a flow of packets distributed in multiple separate flows on multiple links aggregated to form a logical communications link, the method comprising: classifying incoming packets in each of a plurality of separate packet flows output by a logical link; policing each of the classified packet flows at a corresponding number of policers according to a predetermined policing algorithm; and exchanging information between the plurality of policers such that control parameters of the policing algorithm are applied among the policers, such that each policer considers the control parameters of other policers, and wherein exchanging information between the plurality of policers comprises, at each integration time, each policer sending its own Mean Information Rate (MIRn) measured at the integration time to all of the other policers; and a first policer assigning an MIRn=0 to a second policer if the first policer does not receive the MIRn from the second policer within an integration period T.