Patent ID: 7733891

Claim:
A method comprising: performing a first level of classification on packets flowing as traffic through a primary datapath of a network element; performing a second level of classification on duplicates of a subset of the packets, the second level of classification executed within a bifurcated datapath of the network element external to the primary datapath, wherein processing of the duplicate packets enables protocol analysis without impacting traffic flow in the primary datapath; maintaining shared pools of traffic management resources on the network element; dynamically allocating traffic management resources from the shared pools to facilitate transport of respective subscriber flows across the network element, wherein the traffic management resources are dynamically allocated based at least in part on the first and second levels of classification; applying traffic management policies on a per-subscriber flow basis using the traffic management resources allocated to that subscriber flow; applying the traffic management policies to dynamically combine like subscriber service flows into aggregate, higher-bandwidth queues to free queues from the shared pool of traffic management resources for allocation to additional subscriber service flows; determining when a subscriber service flow is terminated; releasing the traffic management resources that were allocated for a terminated subscriber service flow; and applying the traffic management policies to dynamically re-allocate traffic management resources by separating the aggregate, higher-bandwidth queues into lower-bandwidth queues when the shared pool of traffic management resources has queue availability.