Patent ID: 7936770

Claim:
An apparatus associated with a network, the apparatus comprising: a plurality of physical output ports for transmission of network traffic, wherein a first physical output port and a second physical output port are capable of being arranged as an external link aggregated interface, wherein at least one of the first or second physical output ports is based on a networking standard, the external link aggregated interface configured to represent the first physical output port and the second physical output port as a virtual port; associated with the first physical output port: a first set of physical queues for holding units of network traffic prior to transmission through the first physical output port, and a first transmit scheduler configured to schedule transmission of the units of network traffic from the first set of physical queues through the first physical output port; associated with the second physical output port: a second set of physical queues for holding units of network traffic prior to transmission through the second physical output port, and a second transmit scheduler configured to schedule transmission of the units of network traffic from the second set of physical queues through the second physical output port, wherein the first and second transmit schedulers coordinate scheduling of the first and second physical output ports of the virtual port to manage transmission of the units of network traffic, and wherein the first and second transmit schedulers are capable of operating independently of each other; a plurality of logical queues associated with the first physical output port and the second physical output port; and a logical scheduler configured to schedule transmission of units of network traffic associated with the plurality of logical queues to the plurality of physical output ports associated with the virtual port based on a classification of each of the units, the logical scheduler scheduling a plurality of units of network traffic associated with a first of the plurality of logical queues to the first set of physical queues and the second set of physical queues associated with the first physical output port and the second physical output port, respectively, for transmission as further scheduled by the first and second transmit schedulers through the first and second physical output ports, respectively, as the virtual port.