Patent ID: 8537669

Claim:
A method of optimizing priority queue levels for a flow in a network, the method comprising: determining a path for the flow, wherein the path includes a plurality of switches; determining, by a processor, an optimized priority queue level of the flow at each of the plurality of switches based on a Quality of Service (QoS) requirement of the flow and priority queue levels of one or more existing flows in the network, wherein determining the optimized priority queue level of the flow at each of the plurality of switches comprises determining a lowest priority queue level and a highest priority queue level of the flow at each of the plurality of switches, wherein the lowest priority queue level is a lowest priority queue level without violating the QoS requirement of the flow at each of the plurality of switches, and wherein the highest priority queue level is a highest priority queue level without violating QoS requirements of the one or more existing flows at each of the plurality of switches, and wherein the flow passes through the plurality of switches using the optimized priority queue level for the flow at each of the plurality of switches in the network; and sending, to each of the plurality of switches, information associated with the optimized priority queue level of the flow at each of the plurality of switches.