Patent ID: 7342929

Claim:
In a network device deployed on a network, the improvement for controlling throughput comprising a scheduler that schedules one or more packets of at least a selected class for throughput as a function of a dynamic weight of that class and dynamic weights of one or more other classes, a bucket mechanism comprising any of a leaky bucket mechanism and a token bucket mechanism coupled to the scheduler that (i) uses for each class a bucket whose volume is a function of a history of traffic of packets in the respective class received by the network device, and (ii) determines the dynamic weight of each class as a function of the volume of the respective bucket, the bucket mechanism models each bucket as (i) filling at a rate associated with the respective class, (ii) having a minimum capacity associated with that class, and a maximum capacity associated with that class, and the bucket mechanism reduces each bucket proportionally to a volume of packets throughput for the respective class by the scheduler, the scheduler schedules for throughput at a time t a volume of packets of the selected class that is proportional to a content of the bucket for that class at that time so as to protect against overload conditions caused by traffic on the network.