Patent ID: 7869425

Claim:
A method performed by a device, the method comprising: maintaining, by a classifier of the device, a table of flow specifications; receiving, by the classifier, a packet; determining, by the classifier, a priority for the packet based on information in the packet and the table of flow specifications; selectively associating, by the classifier, the packet with a tag that reflects the determined priority; and scheduling, by a scheduler of the device, transmission of the packet in a first way when the packet is associated with the tag and a second, different way when the packet is not associated with the tag, where the table of flow specifications defines flows based on: a destination Internet Protocol address, a source Internet Protocol address, the source Internet Protocol address and the destination Internet Protocol address, the destination Internet Protocol address and a destination User Datagram Protocol port, the destination Internet Protocol address and a destination Transmission Control Protocol port, the source Internet Protocol address and a source User Datagram Protocol port, the source Internet Protocol address and a source Transmission Control Protocol port, the source Internet Protocol address, one of the source User Datagram Protocol port or the source Transmission Control Protocol port, and the destination Internet Protocol address, the destination Internet Protocol address, one of the destination User Datagram Protocol port or the destination Transmission Control Protocol port, and the source Internet Protocol address, or the source Internet Protocol address, one of the source User Datagram Protocol port or the source Transmission Control Protocol port, the destination Internet Protocol address, and one of the destination User Datagram Protocol port or the destination Transmission Control Protocol port.