Patent ID: 7499454

Claim:
A network device comprising: an input module including a set of input ports, the input module to: receive a plurality of datagrams via at least one of the input ports, determine an output port destination and a quality of service (QoS) class associated with ones of the received datagrams, partition at least one of the received datagrams into a group of data units, each of the data units being conforming or nonconforming, buffer the data units in a set of queues based on the determined output port destinations and QoS classes, generate an arrival notification of a potential data unit aggregate including a predetermined number of either the conforming data units or the nonconforming data units corresponding to one of the output port destinations; a scheduler to receive the arrival notification and generate a grant to form the potential data unit aggregate; and an output module to receive the formed data unit aggregate and output corresponding output datagrams.