Patent ID: 8131854

Claim:
A method performed by a network device, comprising: storing, by the network device and in a plurality of entries associated with a first arbitration element, a plurality of data stream identifiers, one of the plurality of data stream identifiers being stored in a respective quantity of entries, of the plurality of entries, based on a speed of a respective data stream, of a plurality of data streams, that corresponds to the one of the plurality of data stream identifiers; receiving, by the network device, packet data associated with the plurality of data streams; identifying, by the network device, a data stream identifier stored in a first entry, of the plurality of entries, associated with the first arbitration element, the data stream identifier corresponding to a data stream of the plurality of data streams; storing, in a memory associated with the network device, the packet data associated with the data stream; identifying, by the network device, a particular data stream identifier stored in another first entry, of another plurality of entries, associated with a second arbitration element, the particular data stream identifier corresponding to a particular data stream of the plurality of data streams; and reading, from the memory associated with the network device, the packet data associated with the particular data stream.