diff --git a/doc/configuration.txt b/doc/configuration.txt
index becdab745..62fc5e902 100644
--- a/doc/configuration.txt
+++ b/doc/configuration.txt
@@ -448,6 +448,7 @@ The following keywords are supported in the "global" section :
 
  * Performance tuning
    - maxconn
+   - maxconnrate
    - maxpipes
    - noepoll
    - nokqueue
@@ -649,6 +650,16 @@ maxconn <number>
   connections when this limit is reached. The "ulimit-n" parameter is
   automatically adjusted according to this value. See also "ulimit-n".
 
+maxconnrate <number>
+  Sets the maximum per-process number of connections per second to <number>.
+  Proxies will stop accepting connections when this limit is reached. It can be
+  used to limit the global capacity regardless of each frontend capacity. It is
+  important to note that this can only be used as a service protection measure,
+  as there will not necessarily be a fair share between frontends when the
+  limit is reached, so it's a good idea to also limit each frontend to some
+  value close to its expected share. Also, lowering tune.maxaccept can improve
+  fairness.
+
 maxpipes <number>
   Sets the maximum per-process number of pipes to <number>. Currently, pipes
   are only used by kernel-based tcp splicing. Since a pipe contains two file
diff --git a/include/proto/proxy.h b/include/proto/proxy.h
index 2b5328c68..f5303bc72 100644
--- a/include/proto/proxy.h
+++ b/include/proto/proxy.h
@@ -25,6 +25,7 @@
 #include <common/config.h>
 #include <common/ticks.h>
 #include <common/time.h>
+#include <types/global.h>
 #include <types/proxy.h>
 #include <proto/freq_ctr.h>
 
diff --git a/include/types/global.h b/include/types/global.h
index cdd1bc478..a5c7fa01c 100644
--- a/include/types/global.h
+++ b/include/types/global.h
@@ -66,6 +66,8 @@ struct global {
 	int gid;
 	int nbproc;
 	int maxconn, hardmaxconn;
+	struct freq_ctr conn_per_sec;
+	int cps_lim, cps_max;
 	int maxpipes;		/* max # of pipes */
 	int maxsock;		/* max # of sockets */
 	int rlimit_nofile;	/* default ulimit-n value : 0=unset */
diff --git a/src/cfgparse.c b/src/cfgparse.c
index 5b942e2ea..1889654d2 100644
--- a/src/cfgparse.c
+++ b/src/cfgparse.c
@@ -682,6 +682,19 @@ int cfg_parse_global(const char *file, int linenum, char **args, int kwm)
 		}
 #endif /* SYSTEM_MAXCONN */
 	}
+	else if (!strcmp(args[0], "maxconnrate")) {
+		if (global.cps_lim != 0) {
+			Alert("parsing [%s:%d] : '%s' already specified. Continuing.\n", file, linenum, args[0]);
+			err_code |= ERR_ALERT;
+			goto out;
+		}
+		if (*(args[1]) == 0) {
+			Alert("parsing [%s:%d] : '%s' expects an integer argument.\n", file, linenum, args[0]);
+			err_code |= ERR_ALERT | ERR_FATAL;
+			goto out;
+		}
+		global.cps_lim = atol(args[1]);
+	}
 	else if (!strcmp(args[0], "maxpipes")) {
 		if (global.maxpipes != 0) {
 			Alert("parsing [%s:%d] : '%s' already specified. Continuing.\n", file, linenum, args[0]);
diff --git a/src/dumpstats.c b/src/dumpstats.c
index c9c40557a..4fde2919a 100644
--- a/src/dumpstats.c
+++ b/src/dumpstats.c
@@ -808,6 +808,7 @@ static int stats_sock_parse_request(struct stream_interface *si, char *line)
 					}
 			}
 
+			global.cps_max = 0;
 			return 1;
 		}
 		else if (strcmp(args[1], "table") == 0) {
diff --git a/src/stream_sock.c b/src/stream_sock.c
index 11e74fdbb..365f52b97 100644
--- a/src/stream_sock.c
+++ b/src/stream_sock.c
@@ -1156,6 +1156,20 @@ int stream_sock_accept(int fd)
 		return 0;
 	}
 
+	if (global.cps_lim) {
+		int max = freq_ctr_remain(&global.conn_per_sec, global.cps_lim, 0);
+
+		if (unlikely(!max)) {
+			/* frontend accept rate limit was reached */
+			limit_listener(l, &global_listener_queue);
+			task_schedule(global_listener_queue_task, tick_add(now_ms, next_event_delay(&global.conn_per_sec, global.cps_lim, 0)));
+			return 0;
+		}
+
+		if (max_accept > max)
+			max_accept = max;
+	}
+
 	if (p && p->fe_sps_lim) {
 		int max = freq_ctr_remain(&p->fe_sess_per_sec, p->fe_sps_lim, 0);
 
@@ -1237,6 +1251,11 @@ int stream_sock_accept(int fd)
 			return 0;
 		}
 
+		/* increase the per-process number of cumulated connections */
+		update_freq_ctr(&global.conn_per_sec, 1);
+		if (global.conn_per_sec.curr_ctr > global.cps_max)
+			global.cps_max = global.conn_per_sec.curr_ctr;
+
 		jobs++;
 		actconn++;
 		totalconn++;