Patent ID: 7623455

Claim:
A method for distributing data packets over a bundle of communication links between two network devices, the method comprising: receiving first commitment data that indicates an amount of data in a data flow queue directed to a buffer for a port of a plurality of active egress ports connected to a bundle of communication links with one particular network device, wherein: a plurality of buffers for the plurality of active egress ports are different from a plurality of data flow queues that include the data flow queue; and a plurality of data packets in such data flow queue are to be received at the particular network device in a same sequence as stored in the data flow queue; determining a particular buffer of the plurality of buffers for a particular data flow queue that is not already directed to any buffer of the plurality of buffers based at least in part on the first commitment data; and directing a particular output data packet, from the particular data flow queue that is not already directed to any buffer, to the particular buffer.