Patent ID: 8619793

Claim:
In a packet forwarding device, a method comprising: monitoring types of packet traffic received in the packet forwarding device; determining whether a type of packet traffic received in the packet forwarding device is a unicast type or a multicast type; when the type of packet traffic is unicast type, selectively modifying a priority of the traffic in response to a destination parameter of a plurality of destination parameters including IP address, destination VLAN and egress port of the packet traffic; and when the type of packet traffic is multicast type, selectively modifying the priority of the traffic in response to a source parameter of a plurality of source parameters including IP address, source VLAN and ingress port of the packet traffic, wherein selectively modifying the priority includes performing at least one of changing assignment of the packet traffic from a queue having a first priority to a queue having a second priority, dropping packets of the packet traffic, copying packets of the packet traffic, and diverting packets of the predetermined type in the packet traffic.