Patent ID: 7715419

Claim:
An apparatus comprising: a switch fabric line card comprising: one or more network interfaces, wherein each of the one or more network interfaces comprises one or more ports, and each of the one or more network interfaces is configured to receive network packets from a corresponding network, and prioritize each network packet with a priority level; a buffer memory coupled to the one or more network interfaces, wherein the buffer memory comprises a plurality of queues configured to store the network packets, and for each priority level, each of the one or more ports has a corresponding queue of the plurality of queues; and a scheduler coupled to the buffer memory wherein the scheduler is configured to select a selected queue of the plurality of queues, wherein the selected queue has a highest associated priority level of any queue comprising a stored network packet, and the selected queue is selected due to the selected queue having the highest associated priority level, and transmit a network packet stored in the selected queue to a packet processor of the switch fabric line card, wherein the processor is configured to process the network packet due to the selection of the selected queue; and a switch fabric coupled to the switch fabric line card.