Patent ID: 7346062

Claim:
A method comprising acts of: providing a scheduler including a plurality of calendars used to determine when a frame is to be moved from a flow queue; providing at least one search engine to search the calendars; defining a tic period within which searching is to be completed; searching with a search engine the calendars so determined; postponing search of any calendars so determined if postponed calendars could not be searched within the tic period; wherein the act of determining calendars to be searched further includes the acts of: providing a first register for storing bits indicating calendars whose current time (Ct) has changed during a tic cycle; providing at least one counter with sufficient bits to count to 2 m-1 , where m=number of bits required to represent number of location in calendar; providing at least one counter with sufficient location to count to log 2m, wherein log 2m=2 m =max number of locations in a calendar; stepping the counter in accordance with a predefined pattern; and adjusting contents of the first register based upon contents of the counter.