Patent ID: 6888824

Claim:
A network device, comprising: a first linecard receiving input computer network packets from a computer network, said line card translating said packets into segments; a switching fabric receiving segments from said linecard, said switching fabric to route said segments to a desired output linecard, said switching fabric having at least one queue therein, said queue having a threshold such that in the event that a segment arrives at said queue and said queue is filled above said threshold, a bit of said segment is set as said segment is passed out of said queue, said bit being set â€œmarkingâ€ said segment as that segment having passed through a queue filled above said lower threshold level; a second line card receiving said segments from said switching fabric, said second linecard translating said segments into a computer network packet for transmission by said second linecard out through a port connected to an output computer network; a circuit determining whether or not a particular segment of said segments received by said second linecard has said bit set indicating that said segment is marked, and in response to detecting a segment as being marked, discarding said output packet in accordance with a random probability, and in response to detecting that no segment of said output packet is marked, transmitting said output packet onto said computer network.