Patent Document ID: 20080005360
Application ID: 11480100
Patent Flag: 0

Claim One:
1. A method for processing packets, comprising: programming a hardware classifier in a network interface card (NIC) to send packets associated with a first packet destination to a non-standby hardware receive ring (HRR); programming a software ring to obtain packets from the non-standby HRR; programming the software ring to send packets for the first destination to a first software receive ring (SRR), wherein the first packet destination is associated with the first SRR; obtaining identifying information about a packet associated with a denial of service (DoS) attack; programming the hardware classifier, using the identifying information, to send the packet associated with the DoS attack to a standby HRR; and for each packet received by the hardware classifier determining to which of the standby HRR and the non-standby HRR to send the packet using the programming of the hardware classifier, wherein the standby HHR and the non-standby HRR are located on the NIC.