Patent ID: 7817644

Claim:
A method of transmitting packets comprising: sorting packets associated with a plurality of virtual circuits into a plurality of bins using a two-dimensional matrix, where each of the plurality of bins corresponds to one of a plurality of weights and all of the sorted packets in each of the bins have the same weight, the weight of each of the sorted packets dependent upon the weights associated with the plurality of virtual circuits; sorting the bins based on connection potentials associated with the plurality of bins to determine which packets to transmit, wherein at least one of the connection potentials is defined as an amount of service that an associated bin has received normalized to the weight of the associated bin, where the amount of service is a variable according to the backlogged status of a circuit and each of the connection potentials are adjusted based on the weight of the associated bin; and servicing all non-empty virtual circuits within a first of the plurality of bins according to the connection potentials prior to sorting the plurality of bins.