Patent ID: 7450503
Filing Date: 2008-11-11
Classification: H04L

Abstract:
1. In a connection-oriented networking environment, a method comprising: separating incoming traffic into unicast traffic and multicast traffic; classifying each root cell of said separated multicast traffic based on a plurality of corresponding classes of service; storing said each root cell into a root cell buffer of a plurality of root cell buffers, each root cell buffer of said plurality of root cell buffers being associated with a corresponding class of service of said plurality of classes of service; transferring said each root cell from said root cell buffer according to said associated class of service to a corresponding replication queue of a plurality of replication queues, each of said plurality of replication queues being assigned a plurality of predetermined parameters including a guaranteed cell rate within said associated class of service that indicates a minimum rate of replication in said corresponding replication queue and a priority parameter that indicates a degree of sensitivity to cell delay variation; replicating said each root cell according to said plurality of predetermined parameters assigned to said each replication queue to obtain a plurality of leaf cells for said each replicated root cell; and combining said separated unicast traffic and said plurality of replicated leaf cells using a multiplexer to obtain a plurality of egress arrival cells.