Patent ID: 7272149
Filing Date: 2007-09-18
Classification: H04J,H04L

Abstract:
1. A system for shaping traffic from a plurality of data streams, the system comprising: a queuing stage configured to shape traffic from the data streams and having a plurality of first-in, first-out queues, the queuing stage including a traffic shaping engine configured to assign traffic to the queues depending on the characteristics of the traffic, and the queuing stage including a bandwidth allocation table coupled to the traffic shaping engine and configured to control traffic flow out of the queues, the traffic shaping engine being configured to compare an amount of bandwidth allocated to one of the queues according to the bandwidth allocation table with a length of a next element of traffic to be transmitted out of the one queue and configured to transmit the next element of traffic out of the one queue only if the amount of bandwidth allocated to the one queue is greater than or equal to the length, the queuing stage being configured to assign priorities to the queues; and a second queuing stage coupled to the first queuing stage to receive traffic transferred from the first mentioned queuing stage and to receive the priority of the transferred traffic separate from the transferred traffic, and including a plurality of priority queues such that, when traffic is transferred from the first mentioned queuing stage to the second queuing stage, the first mentioned queuing stage informs the second queuing stage of the priority of the transferred traffic and the transferred traffic is placed onto a predetermined priority queue of the second queuing stage based on the priority.