Patent ID: 7317730

Claim:
In a parallel packet processing system, a method for placing cells of a packet in processor queues according to a predetermined order comprising: selecting a first processor queue for a first cell of the packet, comprising: determining a maximum integer number of cells in a load period, the maximum integer number of cells having a number of bits for the load period less than a bit load state of each processor queue for the load period, determining a difference between the number of bits for the load period and the bit load state for each processor queue for the load period, and responsive to at least one difference being greater than a cell size of bits, selecting as the first queue for the first cell a queue satisfying criteria including having a difference less than the cell size and being the next queue according to the predetermined order after a previous queue in the predetermined order having a difference greater than or equal to the cell size; and enqueueing each nth cell in a processor queue in accordance with a predetermined order beginning with the first processor queue.