Patent ID: 7020712

Claim:
A method for providing an inbound controller for a router, the router having an inbound port and an outbound port, a memory, and a CPU, the inbound controller being adapted for receiving an inbound packet at the inbound port, the method comprising: providing a plurality of inbound queues for the inbound port; receiving an inbound packet at the inbound port; classifying the inbound packet in a selected one of the plurality of inbound queues according to packet sorting criteria; storing the inbound packet in the selected one of the plurality of inbound queues; and determining when one of the plurality of inbound queues storing a plurality of packets is ready to be moved to an entry in an outbound queue associated with the outbound port, the outbound queue being capable of storing a reference to a multiplicity of inbound queues such that a reference to each of the multiplicity of inbound queues is separately stored in a different one of a plurality of entries in the outbound queue, each of the multiplicity of inbound queues storing a plurality of packets to be separately transmitted.