The invention relates to a method for sorting data packets using an ordered access-control list (L) including at least one sorting rule (Rk), that comprises the step of determining, for each data packet to be sorted, a value (e) used for identifying a packet category, a data packet including a set of one or more data fields having values used for determining the sorting value allocated to this packet, a sorting rule (Rk) defining, on the one hand, a sorting criterion relative to at least one data field and, on the other hand, a sorting value to be allocated to a packet for which said at least one data field has a value matching said sorting criterion, wherein the sorting value determined for a packet is obtained after a number NB of iterations (310) from an initial sorting value (e0) by processing in a predetermined order a set of NB data blocks including the set of data fields of the related packet, the size of said data blocks being selected from a set of several possible values.