Patent ID: 8665722

Claim:
A router for transmitting a plurality of guaranteed rate (GR) traffic flows over a scheduling frame comprising a plurality of time-slots, where each GR traffic flow is associated with a guaranteed data rate, comprising: a switch with N input ports and M output ports, wherein N and M are integers; a plurality of queues, wherein each queue is associated with an input port and an output port, and wherein each GR traffic flow is associated with one queue, and wherein packets associated with a GR traffic flow are buffered in its associated queue; memory storing a queue-schedule, wherein the queue-schedule specifies for each input port which queue, if any, is enabled to transmit a packet during each time-slot in the scheduling frame; memory storing a flow-schedule, wherein the flow-schedule specifies for each input port which GR traffic flow, if any, in an enabled queue is further enabled to transmit a packet during time-slots in the scheduling frame; wherein the queue-schedule provides each queue with a guaranteed rate of connection through the switch to its associated output port over the scheduling frame, sufficient to satisfy the cumulative data rate requirement of the GR traffic flows associated with the queue; and wherein the flow-schedule provides each GR traffic flow with a guaranteed rate of connection through the switch to its associated output port over the scheduling frame, sufficient to satisfy its guaranteed data rate requirement.