Patent Document ID: 9229683
Application ID: 14570083
Patent Flag: 1

Claim One:
1. A communication device comprising: a plurality of input ports to receive packets; a storage component containing a plurality of storage buffer segments, wherein the storage buffer segments are each assigned to one of a plurality of classification types; an ingress management component coupled to the plurality of input ports and the storage component, wherein the ingress management component includes: a classifier to classify each of the packets received through the plurality of input ports into one of the plurality of classification types based upon information in the packets; classification filters to write the packets into corresponding ones of the plurality of storage buffer segments based upon the classification types of the packets; counters respectively associated with the classification filters, wherein each of the counters is to be decremented each time the associated classification filter writes a packet into a corresponding storage buffer segment; and a processor to process packets from the plurality of storage buffer segments.