the present invention is a methodology to prioritize packets based on the conditional probability that given the values of attributes carried by packet , the packet is a legitimate one . we will call this the conditional legitimate probability of a packet from here onward . the conditional probability of each packet is evaluated based on bayesian estimation technique . this is accomplished by comparing the attributes carried by an incoming packet against the “ nominal ” distribution of attributes of legitimate packet stream . since an exact prioritization of packets based on their conditional legitimate probability would require offline , multiple - pass operations , e . g . sorting , we take the following alternative approach to realize an online , one - pass selectively dropping scheme . in particular , we maintain the cumulative distribution function of the conditional legitimate probability of all incoming packets and apply a threshold - based selective dropping mechanism according to the conditional probability value computed for each incoming packet . to speed - up the computation of the conditional legitimate probability for each incoming packet , we may , as an alternative , use the logarithmic version of the equation to implement the bayesian estimation process . other features of the invention include : providing means to guarantee minimum throughput of particular type of packets ; providing a . filtering mechanism to suppress the noise during estimation / maintenance of nominal attributes distribution ; applying state - of - the - art efficient algorithm / data - structures for quantile and histogram building / updates ; using the proven , industrial - strength load - shedding algorithms as a submodule in the overload control algorithm ; and being amenable to practical implementation to support online , one - pass processing on high - speed communication links .