Patent ID: 7738370

Claim:
A method, comprising: receiving a data stream consisting of a plurality of data packets, each of the plurality of data packets being marked with an identifier, wherein the identifier is configured to consist of ┌log 2 (n)┐ bits of a data packet header, where ┌ ┐ represents an operator for the upper next integer, and wherein a plurality of queuing entities is configured to consist of n queuing entities, n being an integer greater than 1; enforcing each one of the plurality of data packets based on the respective identifier, wherein enforcing comprises: detecting the identifier in each one of the plurality of marked data packets; and queuing, responsive to the detecting, the data packets into one of the plurality of queuing entities, the queuing entities being prioritized with respect to each other; scheduling, in each of the plurality of prioritized queuing entities, the respective queued data packets; and causing transmission of the scheduled data packets in each of the plurality of prioritized queuing entities according to the priority of the respective queuing entity.