The ATM technology has been specified to provide users with the ability to request quality of service (QoS) for their applicatio ns and to enable high speed communications. However, access-control tools such as firewalls when used with ATM networks can destroy these properties. In this paper we describe a new architecture providing a high speed access-control service for ATM and IP over ATM networks. While most of the alternatives to our proposal focus on the efficiency of the access-control process and provide no assurance of the quality of service, our solution delineates bounds to the minimal throughput and maximal delay that can be reached. These bounds can be insured, thanks to a new cell classification algorithm used in combination with an efficient hardware part called IFT. Moreover, whereas existing proposals focus on the IP access-control service, our proposal gives the security officer the ability to filter ATM traffics through new access-control parameters such as QoS or se...