Patent ID: 7779144

Claim:
An apparatus for managing packet flow through a logical data tunnel formed between partnered traffic managers, comprising: one or more network interfaces; a memory including: an outside queue for buffering outgoing packets destined to a partnered traffic manager via a logical data tunnel comprising one or more packet flows transiting to the partnered traffic manager; and an inside queue for buffering received incoming packets from the partnered traffic manager via the logical data tunnel; a processor; and computer-executable program code stored in the memory and executable by the processor, the computer-executable program code comprising: a traffic manager module comprising computer-executable instructions operative, when executed, to cause the processor to form a logical, network layer data tunnel with a remote tunnel partner, to transmit one or more packet flows via the logical, network layer data tunnel; a classifier module comprising computer-executable instructions operative, when executed, to cause the processor to classify packet flows to determine respective service types, wherein each service type maps to an aggregate bandwidth flow allocation and a compression index value; a compression module comprising computer-executable instructions operative, when executed, to cause the processor to compress individual packets of the one or more packet flows; apply a compression algorithm to the individual packets based on the compression index value associated with the individual packets; and compare the sizes of the compressed individual packets to corresponding uncompressed packets to maintain an aggregate compression predictor value; a transmit module comprising computer-executable instructions operative, when executed, to cause the processor to schedule packets for transmission based on the aggregate bandwidth flow allocations of respective packet flows and the aggregate compression predictor value; and transmit individual packets compressed by the compression module over the logical, network layer data tunnel.