Patent ID: 7764688

Claim:
A method for scheduling data forwarding in an Ethernet network, the method comprising: defining a set of differentiated service classes, each differentiated service class associated with a set of per-hop behaviors; indicating a particular per-hop behavior of the set of per-hop behaviors for an Ethernet frame in a set of priority bits in a tag field of a header of the Ethernet frame; allocating a link bandwidth among the set of differentiated service classes; allocating portions of the allocated link bandwidth for the set of differentiated service classes among at least one particular service class, the service class including multiple virtual local area network (VLAN) classes; allocating portions of the allocated link bandwidth for the particular service class among a particular VLAN class based on the set of priority bits, each allocated portion reserved for a separate data queue; assigning the Ethernet frame to a data queue based on the per-hop behavior indicated in the set of priority bits in the tag field; and forwarding the Ethernet frame through the Ethernet network using the allocated portion of the allocated link bandwidth for the particular service class of the particular VLAN class.