Patent ID: 7738375

Claim:
A network device comprising: a memory that stores instructions to implement a simple shared shaper to: receive aggregate rate information that includes rates of traffic flows for a plurality of traffic classes, where each of the traffic classes has a different quality of service requirement, receive a best effort rate value, obtain a downstream queue approximation associated with a downstream device without receiving information from the downstream device, based on an amount of traffic flow, of a particular one of the traffic classes, that exceeds an allocated bandwidth threshold for the particular traffic class, associated with the downstream device, and based on a previous queue approximation associated with the downstream device, determine a new best effort rate value based on the obtained downstream queue approximation, based on the received aggregate rate information, and based on the received best effort rate value, and shape an outgoing traffic flow associated with the network device, based on the new best effort rate value, where the outgoing traffic includes the traffic flows with quality of service requirements and best effort rate traffic; and a processor, connected to the memory, where the processor executes the instructions stored in the memory.