Patent ID: 6067301
Filing Date: 2000-05-23
Classification: H04L

Abstract:
A method for forwarding packets from a plurality of contending queues to an output having a finite bandwidth comprising the steps of:prioritizing each queue of said plurality of queues with a priority that is fixed relative to the other queues of said plurality of queues, thereby defining a fixed prioritization range that includes a highest priority queue and a lowest priority queue;allocating a share of said bandwidth of said output to each of said queues;consuming at least a portion of said bandwidth of said output with packets from said queues according to said allocated shares, leaving an unconsumed portion when at least one of said queues does not exhaust the allocated share of said at least one queue; anddistributing one hundred percent of said unconsumed portion of said bandwidth to said queues on a fixed priority basis, wherein one hundred percent of said unconsumed portion of said bandwidth is offered first to said highest priority queue and then any remaining portion of said unconsumed portion of said bandwidth is offered to lower priority queues, on a queue by queue basis, according to said fixed prioritization range until all of said bandwidth is consumed or until there are no more queued packets.