Patent ID: 7948962

Claim:
A communication network element comprising: traffic scheduler logic operable to schedule transmission of a first category of queued traffic across a backhaul interface in accordance with a rate control value, wherein the rate control value is based on at least one of: at least one control input, wherein the at least one control input comprises at least one of a mean bit rate and a buffer occupancy value for at least one of: not-just-in-time (NJIT) traffic; just-in-time (JIT) traffic; and control signalling traffic, and a strategy for sharing the backhaul interface bandwidth between the first and second categories of traffic; and traffic manager logic operable to schedule transmission of a second category of queued traffic across the backhaul interface in accordance with a determined backhaul bandwidth allocation, wherein the backhaul bandwidth allocation is based upon a determination of available bandwidth across the backhaul interface, and the available bandwidth is not required for scheduled first category traffic.