Patent ID: 7983299

Claim:
A network device comprising: a filter component to assign priority levels to data units, the priority levels defining traffic classes for the data units; and a scheduler component to schedule transmission of the traffic classes based on an assignment of weights to the traffic classes using at least one bandwidth allocation policy that exhibits a bandwidth allocation profile that varies based on one or more parameters, of the at least one bandwidth allocation policy, that are configurable by an administrator of the network device, where the at least one bandwidth allocation policy includes: a first bandwidth allocation policy in which the weights, associated with a first group including two or more of the traffic classes, are assigned based on the one or more parameters and in which two adjacent traffic classes, of the traffic classes, have a weight difference that corresponds to other weight differences associated with, respectively, another two other adjacent traffic classes, of the traffic classes, a second bandwidth allocation policy in which the weights, associated with a second group including two or more of the traffic classes, are assigned based on the one or more parameters and in which the two adjacent traffic classes have a weight ratio that corresponds to other weight ratios associated with, respectively, another two other adjacent traffic classes, of the traffic classes, and a hybrid bandwidth allocation policy in which the weights, associated with a third group including two or more of the traffic classes, are assigned based on both the first bandwidth allocation policy and the second bandwidth allocation policy, where the first group, second group, and third group differ.