Patent ID: 7974289

Claim:
A network device, comprising: a plurality of output queues; a route table to: store first destination addresses; a quality description table to: store quality classes; an output table to: store output queue numbers and output virtual channel numbers; and a processor to: receive a packet that includes a first header portion and a second header portion, identify a first destination address of the stored first destination addresses for the packet using the first header portion, identify a quality class of the stored quality classes for the packet using the second header portion, and identify, using the identified first destination address and the identified quality class, one output queue of the plurality of output queues in which to store the packet and a virtual channel number associated with a virtual channel via which the stored packet is to be transmitted from the identified one output queue, where the quality description table includes at least one of a virtual dedicated network number field, a source address mask length field, a source port number field, a destination address mask length field, a destination port number field, and a quality class field, and where the processor is further configured to at least one of: store, when a specific flow is to be defined, information in the virtual dedicated network number field, the source address mask length field, the source port number field, the destination address mask length field, the destination port number field, and the quality class field, store, when a quality is to be defined between specific terminals, information in the virtual dedicated network number field, the source address mask length field, the destination address mask length field, and the quality class field, store, when a quality is to be defined with respect to traffic transmitted by a specific terminal, information in the virtual dedicated network number field, the source address mask length field, and the quality class field, store, when a quality is to be defined between specific local area networks, information in the virtual dedicated network number field, mask lengths of addresses held by a first local area network of the local area networks in the source address mask length field, mask lengths of addresses held by a second local area network of the local area networks in the destination address mask length field, and information in the quality class field, store, when a quality is to be defined with respect to a specific virtual dedicated network, information in the virtual dedicated network number field and the quality class field, or store, when a quality is to be defined with respect to a specific application in a specific virtual dedicated network, information in the virtual dedicated network number field, the source port number field, the destination port number field, and the quality class field.