TECHNIQUE FOR FLEXIBLY POLICING COMMUNICATION TRAFFIC

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a technique for policing the communication traffic of variable length packets. SOLUTION: This technique uses a plurality of police engine modules gathered into sets of two engines. A selection module selects a pair of police engine modules which process packets. Each police engine module includes a conformance unit, a credit unit, and a debit unit. The credit unit of one police engine module has an influence, upon updating of the credit unit of the other police engine module of the same pair. In addition, this technique decides the category of a processed packet and the police engine module having a debit unit to be updated, by using combination relationship. COPYRIGHT: (C)2004,JPO