Patent ID: 7295558

Claim:
Apparatus for allocating bandwidth for transmission of messages associated with a plurality of connections, said apparatus comprising: transmission equipment for receiving multiple messages from said plurality of connections, segmenting each received message into one or more data units, and multiplexing such data units from the plurality of connections into a single stream for transport over a physical interface at an output transmission rate; bandwidth allocation means associated with the transmission equipment for dynamically allocating a portion of the output transmission rate to transmit data units of a message associated with any connection of said plurality of connections; and a scheduler, connected to the bandwidth allocation means, for scheduling transfer of data units associated with different messages to the single stream and for allocating a substantially maximum permissible portion of the output transmission rate to transmitting the data units of the message associated with the any connection substantially at the time the message is transferred to the transmission equipment from the any connection in order to minimize interleaving of data units from different messages from the plurality of connections.