Patent ID: 7099330
Filing Date: 2006-08-29
Classification: H04L

Abstract:
1. A scheduling apparatus for servicing a plurality of data packet flows, each of said data packet flows having specified service requirements and being associated with respective one of a plurality of queues, each of said plurality of queues containing data packets, the distribution of service to said data packet flows being organized in service frames, each service frame offering a number of service opportunities to each of said data packet flows, said number of service opportunities depending on the service requirements of said data packet flows, the scheduling apparatus comprising: a first scheduler providing service to each of a first set of guaranteed-bandwidth (GB) data packet flows that are backlogged during a first subframe of a service frame, said backlogged GB data packet flows having service requirements expressed in terms of guaranteed-bandwidth requirements, the service provided to each backlogged GB data packet flow being limited to its guaranteed bandwidth requirement even when the backlog at that backlogged GB data packet flow exceeds its guaranteed bandwidth, the duration of the first subframe being sufficient to satisfy the sum of the guaranteed bandwidth requirements of said first set of backlogged GB data packet flows, the duration of the first subframe being never longer than the duration of the service frame; and a second scheduler providing service to a second set of best-effort (BE) data packet flows during a second subframe of the service frame, said BE data packet flows having service requirements that are not expressed in terms of guaranteed bandwidth requirements, the duration of the second subframe being the duration of the service frame minus the duration of the first subframe in the same service frame.