Patent ID: 7545814

Claim:
A method, comprising: mapping each received packet to at least one of a plurality of queues, wherein the mapping is based on a kind of data included with each of the received packet; providing a threshold that is compared to a differential that represents loading differences between a queue associated with the kind of data included in the received packet and another queue that is unassociated with the kind of data included in the received packet, wherein the queue associated with the kind of data included in the received packet is overloaded when the differential exceeds the threshold; when the differential exceeds the threshold, and operational logic is valid, automatically changing the mapping of the received packet from the queue to the other queue, wherein the other queue is less loaded than the queue associated with the kind of data included in the received packet when the differential exceeds the threshold; and forwarding each of the received packet in each said queue along a path towards the final destination, wherein the ordering of the forwarding of each of the received packet is in accordance with a weight associated with each said queue.