Patent ID: 8625624

Claim:
A method comprising: receiving a plurality of first values, wherein each of the first values is related to a quantity of data stored in a respective one of a plurality of buffers, wherein one of the plurality of first values is numerically greater than another of the plurality of first values, which in turn is numerically greater than yet another of the plurality of first values; receiving first identifiers, wherein the first identifiers correspond to buffers, respectively, of a first subset of the plurality of buffers, wherein the first identifiers include some but not all of a plurality of identifiers corresponding to the plurality of buffers, respectively, wherein each of the buffers corresponding to the first identifiers is coupled to a same destination device for the first frame so that the first frame can be transmitted to the destination device via any of the buffers corresponding to the first identifiers; selecting a subset of the first identifiers based on one or more of the first values; selecting one of the first identifiers contained in the selected subset; transmitting a first frame to the buffer that corresponds to the selected one of the first identifiers.