Patent ID: 8218546

Claim:
A network device for processing packets, the network device comprising: at least one ingress module configured to receive at least one packet; a memory management unit configured to store a received packet; and at least one egress module configured to enqueue a stored packet within at least one of a plurality of queues, wherein each of the at least one egress module(s) includes a plurality of queues comprising: a plurality of class of service queues each associated with a class of service and each configured to indicate an order in which packets are to be transmitted from the class of service queue, and a purge queue configured to indicate packets which have been stored by the memory management unit and have also been marked as purged before being enqueued within the at least one of a plurality of queues; and wherein the at least one egress module is also configured to transmit a packet enqueued within one of the plurality of class of service queues, but not the purged queue, to at least one port.