Patent Document ID: 20020039351
Application ID: 09808652
Patent Flag: 0

Claim One:
1. A method of scheduling for servicing a plurality of output queues associated with a communications port, the method comprising cyclical steps of: a. selecting for servicing an output queue holding at least one Payload Data Unit (PDU) from the plurality of output queues, the selected output queue having an associated credit counter holding a lowest credit value C(j); b. selectively incrementing the credit value C(j) held in the credit counter to account for the transmission of the at least one PDU of a length L from the selected output queue; and c. periodically decrementing the credit values C(j) of a subgroup of the corresponding plurality of credit counters associated with output queues holding at least one PDU pending transmission in accordance with transmission bandwidth apportionments A(j) assigned to each output queue whereby selecting for servicing the output queue having the lowest credit value, emulated weighted fair queuing is achieved in the long run with minimal computation.