Patent ID: 8798074

Claim:
A method comprising: determining which of packet forwarding network devices provide ingress to or egress from a packet-based, ring network with a first one of packet forwarding network devices; determining one or more order-dependent pairs as a function of the determined packet forwarding network devices; determining one or more quality of service (QoS) classes that each indicates a forwarding priority; within the first one of the network devices, allocating a queue for the determined order-dependent pairs of the packet forwarding network devices in combination with each different one of the QoS classes, wherein the one or more pairs of order-dependent combinations of the network devices represents a different order-dependent combination of the determined packet-forwarding network devices that includes one of the network devices that provides an ingress for packets to the ring network and one of the network devices that provides an egress from the ring network for the packets; receiving, with the first one of the network devices, a packet forwarded by a neighboring one of the other plurality of network devices along the ring network; selecting one of the one or more order-dependent pairs of the network devices based on the one of the network devices that provided the ingress for the packet to the ring network and the one of the network devices that will provide the egress for the packet from the ring network; selecting one of the plurality of queues within the first one of the network devices based on the selected one of the one or more order-dependent pairs of network devices; storing the packet to the selected queue within the first one of the network devices; and forwarding the packet via the ring network.