Patent ID: 7409460

Claim:
A method of employing a plurality of processors to manage the transmission of data packets across a network, comprising: (a) maintaining a virtual queue of data packets, maintaining the virtual queue comprising: (i) maintaining a plurality of member queues, wherein at least two member queues of the plurality of member queues are maintained on separate processors of the plurality of processors, such that the virtual queue comprises the plurality of member queues; (ii) adding data packets to each member queue; (iii) coordinating a rate of transmission from each member queue of the plurality of member queues by transmitting tokens from at least one processor to another processor of the plurality of processors, wherein the tokens are employed to control a rate of transmission of data packets from each member queue of the plurality of member queues; and (b) controlling an aggregate rate of transmission based at least in part on a specified target transmission rate, wherein the aggregate rate of transmission is based on a combination of the rates of transmission from each member queue of the plurality of member queues.