Patent ID: 6101193
Filing Date: 2000-08-08
Classification: H04L,H04Q

Abstract:
A packet scheduling apparatus, comprising:a plurality of packet queues for holding packets;an input unit for inputting arrived packets into the packet queues;a scheduling unit for sequentially selecting an output packet queue from the packet queues, according to a prescribed criterion based on an amount of packets currently transmittable by each packet queue, such that thc output packet queue is selected to be different from a previously selected output packet queue when there are more than one packet queues that satisfy the prescribed criterion, wherein the input unit enters a scheduling information for each arrived packet into the scheduling unit while inputting each arrived packet into one of the packet queues, and the scheduling unit has two scheduling queues and selects one scheduling queue as a current round scheduling queue for holding the scheduling information for packets held in those packet queues which are currently capable of transmitting packets according to the prescribed criterion while using another scheduling queue as a next round scheduling queue for holding the scheduling information for packets held in those packet queues which are currently not capable of transmitting packets, so that the scheduling unit takes out one scheduling information from the current round scheduling queue and selects the output packet queue according to the scheduling information at a time of packet output; andan output unit for outputting a top packet from the output packet queue sequentially selected by the scheduling unit.