Patent ID: 8457142

Claim:
A network element comprising: one or more processors to: dequeue packets from a set of scheduling nodes in a deficit weighted round robin (DWRR) process; determine whether a subset of the set of scheduling nodes is being backpressured, when the subset is being backpressured and a scheduling node is included in the subset, the scheduling node is not read during the DWRR process; set, when the subset is not being backpressured, a root rich most negative credits (MNC) value, associated with a root node of the set of scheduling nodes, to a root poor MNC value associated with the root node; set, when the subset is not being backpressured, the root poor MNC value to zero; set, when the subset is being backpressured, the root rich MNC value to a maximum of the root poor MNC value or a root backpressured rich MNC value associated with the subset; set, when the subset is being backpressured, the root poor MNC value to a root backpressured poor MNC value associated with the subset, the root rich MNC value corresponding to a first measure of how many credits will replenish scheduling nodes to a non-negative value of credits based on a previous DWRR round of the DWRR process, the root poor MNC value corresponding to a second measure of how many credits will replenish scheduling nodes to a non-negative value of credits based on a current DWRR round of the DWRR process, the root backpressured rich MNC value corresponding to a third measure of how many credits will replenish scheduling nodes in the subset to a non-negative value of credits based on the previous DWRR round, and the root backpressured poor MNC value corresponding to a fourth measure of how many credits will replenish scheduling nodes in the subset to a non-negative value of credits based on the current DWRR round; and replenish, based on at least one of the root rich MNC value or the root poor MNC value, credits associated with the subset to allow dequeueing of other packets from the subset during the DWRR process.