Patent ID: 7664115

Claim:
A method for merging a plurality of virtual connections to form a merged virtual connection, comprising: buffering data of each of the plurality of virtual connections into a corresponding one of a plurality of buffers, wherein each of the plurality of virtual connections is identified by an identifier, wherein each of the plurality of virtual connections is included in a class of a plurality of classes; queuing an identity of a virtual connection in a queue when data that constitute a complete packet are buffered in a corresponding buffer, wherein the queue includes a plurality of queues, wherein each of the plurality of queues corresponds to a class of the plurality of classes, wherein queuing the identity of a virtual connection further comprises queuing the identity of the virtual connection into a corresponding one of the plurality of queues based on class of the virtual connection; obtaining prioritization information for the merged virtual connection, wherein the prioritization information includes class prioritization information; and generating a data stream for the merged virtual connection based on the prioritization information and virtual connection identities stored in the queue, wherein the merged virtual connection is identified by a merged identifier, wherein each unit of data in the data stream includes the merged identifier.