Patent ID: 7379420

Claim:
A method of providing multiple qualities of service to different virtual network connections, the method comprising: receiving a token of a cell descriptor of data traffic of a virtual network connection, the token including an identifier corresponding to contracted bandwidth parameters of the cell descriptor; determining whether the token is in conformance with the contracted bandwidth parameters of the cell descriptor to obtain a conformance status; inserting the token into a first random access memory configured to store the token for immediate output if the conformance status has a first value and a token with the same identifier has not been stored in the first memory; inserting the token into a second random access memory configured to store the token for non-immediate output if the conformance status does not have the first value and a token with the same identifier has not been stored in the second memory; otherwise, deferring the token by inserting it into a third random access memory, wherein deferring the token further comprises updating a count corresponding to the identifier of the deferred token; replacing tokens removed from said first or sccond memory with deferred tokens from the third memory having the same identifier as the removed tokens until the count corresponding to said same identifier has a predetermined value, wherein said count is undated each time a removed token is replaced with a deferred token.