Patent ID: 7948976

Claim:
A method of processing packets in a network, the method comprising: receiving, at a particular port included in a group of ports, a packet characterized by a drop precedence value; determining whether to store the packet based on a comparison between a group count and a group count threshold, the group count indicative of a size of packets stored in a subset of all of a plurality of storage regions, the subset of the plurality of storage regions corresponding to the group of ports, and the group count threshold indicative of a size of the subset of the plurality of storage regions corresponding to the group of ports; and if the packet is to be stored: determining a destination storage region for storing the packet, said determined destination storage region being included in the subset of the plurality of storage regions; storing the packet in a committed area of the determined destination storage region if the packet has a first drop precedence value and if an available storage space in the committed area is greater than a first threshold; and storing the packet in a shared area of the determined destination storage region if the packet is not stored in the committed area and if an available storage space in the shared area is greater than a second threshold defined by the packet's drop precedence value.