Network Equipment Technologies, Inc.

Todd B Lowpensky

Mike Reynolds

Richard Lemyre

Trevor Elbourne

A method and apparatus are provided for providing multiple qualities of service to different virtual network connections. In one example, the method receives a token of a cell descriptor of data traffic of a virtual network connection. It is determined whether the token is in conformance with contracted bandwidth parameters of the cell descriptor to obtain a conformance status. Based on the conformance status, one of the following steps is performed: the token is inserted into a first random access memory configured to store the token for immediate output, or the token is inserted into a second random access memory configured to store the token for non-immediate output.

Method and apparatus for multiple qualities of service to different network connections of a single network path

An apparatus and method for traffic shaping in a network switch, which provides for per-connection shaping. A Cell Descriptor (CD)-processing block and a ShapeID processing block operate to de-couple the management of the CDs from the scheduling of the CD output times. The CD-processing block outputs a token (ShapeID) to the ShapeID block. If the token is conforming, it is immediately passed back to the CD-processing block, otherwise it is processed. When the token is &ldquo;mature&rdquo; the token is passed back to the CD-processing block. Use of &ldquo;now&rdquo; and &ldquo;later&rdquo; lists with per-connection ShapeIDs provides priority within a virtual connection (VC) and a virtual path (VP), respectively. This effectively preserves the relative priority for connections being shaped within a VP. Also, the use of a Calendar Queue reduces the complexity of a &ldquo;virtual finishing time&rdquo; (VFT) calculation.

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Hillsborough, CA, United States of America

Todd B Lowpensky