LINK SCHEDULING

摘要

Methods and apparatus for scheduling cell transmission over a network link by a switch. The switch includes a plurality of queues associated with each link. Lists of queues are maintained for each link. In one embodiment, each link is associated with more than one type of list (with the list type corresponding to a scheduling category) (61) and more than one prioritized list of each type (with the priority of the list corresponding to a quality of service). The scheduling lists (61) are accessed to permit cell transmission from a queue (35, 28) contained therein in a predetermined sequence as a function of scheduling category, priority within a particular scheduling category and whether the bandwidth requirement for the particular scheduling category has been met. With this arrangement, maximum permissible delay requirements for each scheduling category are met.