Patent ID: 7796610

Claim:
A network device comprising: an input module including a set of input ports, the input module to: partition, into a group of data units, at least one of a plurality of datagrams received at one of set of the input ports, each of the group of data units being one of conforming or nonconforming, buffer the data units in a set of queues based on output port destinations in the network device and quality of service (QoS) classes associated with the respective data units, and generate an arrival notification of a potential data unit aggregate that includes a predetermined number of either the conforming data units or the nonconforming data units corresponding to one of the output port destinations; a scheduler to: receive the arrival notification, and generate a grant, to the input module, to form the potential data unit aggregate; and an output module to: receive the formed data unit aggregate, and output, via the one output port destination, output datagrams corresponding to the formed data unit aggregate.