Method and apparatus for communicating data packets according to classes of service

摘要

A method and apparatus for communicating data packets according to classes of service is described. One or more service interfaces are coupled to a plurality of transport interfaces. The service interfaces carry packets having multiple classes of service, while each of the plurality of transport interfaces carries packets of a single class of service. A differentiated services codepoint profile is associated with each service interface and maps a differentiated services codepoint value of a data packet to a class of service and a drop precedence. The data packet is assigned to a transport interface based on its class of service and its drop precedence. Other factors, such as the destination of the data packet may be considered when assigning the data packet to a transport interface. Data packets from different transport interfaces are preferably enqueued in different queues of a destination service interface.