Method and apparatus for shared shaping

Abstract

A method and a network device for sharing bandwidth among a group of classes of traffic for an interface are provided. Bandwidth may be allocated to at least one traffic class of a first priority for the interface. At least some unused bandwidth of the at least one traffic class may be allocated to at least one other traffic class of a second priority for the interface. In some implementations, weighted constituents may be allocated unused interface bandwidth based on an assigned weight of each of the weighted constituents of the interface.

1 - 20 . (canceled) 
     
     
         21 . A method, comprising:
 associating, by a device, a first part of bandwidth with a first traffic class of a first priority;   associating, by the device, a second part of the bandwidth with a second traffic class of a second priority;   determining, by the device, whether a portion of the first part is unused; and   allocating, by the device, the portion of the first part to the second traffic class when the portion of the first part is unused.   
     
     
         22 . The method of  claim 21 , further comprising:
 determining whether a portion of the second part is unused; and   allocating the portion of the second part to the first traffic class when the portion of the second part is unused.   
     
     
         23 . The method of  claim 21 , where the associating the first part of the bandwidth with the first traffic class of the first priority comprises:
 assigning the first priority to the first traffic class;   associating a scheduler node with the first priority; and   calculating an amount of the first part of the bandwidth for the scheduler node.   
     
     
         24 . The method of  claim 21 , where the determining whether the portion of the first part is unused comprises:
 monitoring a queue rate associated with the first traffic class; and   determining whether the portion of the first part is unused based on the queue rate.   
     
     
         25 . The method of  claim 24 , where the queue rate is based on at least one of an enqueue rate or a dequeue rate of a queue associated with the first traffic class. 
     
     
         26 . The method of  claim 21 , where the first traffic class corresponds to voice traffic. 
     
     
         27 . The method of  claim 21 , further comprising associating a third part of the bandwidth with a third traffic class of a third priority, where the allocating the portion of the first part to the second traffic class comprises allocating the portion of the first part to the third traffic class. 
     
     
         28 . A network device comprising:
 a packet forwarding engine with a hierarchical scheduler, the hierarchical scheduler comprising:
 a physical port to receive network traffic, 
 a first priority group scheduler node associated with a first part of bandwidth for a first traffic class of a first priority, 
 a second priority group scheduler node associated with a second part of the bandwidth for a second traffic class of a second priority, 
 where the first priority group scheduler node and the second priority group scheduler node receive the network traffic from the physical port, and 
 where the network traffic comprises the first traffic class and the second traffic class; and 
   a processor to allocate a portion of the first part of the bandwidth for the second traffic class when the portion of the first part of the bandwidth is unused.   
     
     
         29 . The network device of  claim 28 , where the hierarchical scheduler further comprises:
 a first virtual circuit scheduler node and a second virtual circuit scheduler node associated with the first priority group scheduler; and   a queue associated with the second priority group scheduler.   
     
     
         30 . The network device of  claim 29 , where the first priority group scheduler forwards the network traffic corresponding to the first traffic class to at least one of the first virtual circuit scheduler node or the second virtual circuit scheduler node. 
     
     
         31 . The network device of  claim 29 , where, when allocating the portion of the first part of the bandwidth for the second traffic class, the processor is to: allocate the portion of the first part of the bandwidth based on a queue rate associated with the queue. 
     
     
         32 . The network device of  claim 29 ,
 where the hierarchical scheduler further comprises a first virtual circuit queue associated with the first virtual circuit scheduler node, and   where, when allocating the portion of the first part of the bandwidth for the second traffic class, the processor is to: allocate the portion of the first part of the bandwidth based on a first queue rate associated with the queue and a second queue rate associated with the first virtual circuit queue.   
     
     
         33 . The network device of  claim 28 ,
 where the first traffic class comprises of at least one of voice traffic or video traffic, and   where the second traffic class comprises data traffic.   
     
     
         34 . A device comprising:
 a hierarchical scheduler comprising:
 a first virtual circuit group scheduler node and a second virtual circuit group scheduler node associated with a first part of bandwidth for a first traffic class of a first priority, 
 a medium priority group scheduler node associated with a second part of the bandwidth for a second traffic class of a second priority, and 
 a high priority group scheduler node associated with a third part of the bandwidth for a third traffic class of a third priority; and 
   a processor to:
 allocate a first portion of at least one of the second part of the bandwidth or the third part of the bandwidth for the first traffic class based on a shaping rate. 
   
     
     
         35 . The device of  claim 34 , where the hierarchical scheduler further comprises:
 a first queue associated with the first virtual circuit group scheduler node;   a second queue associated with the second virtual circuit group scheduler node;   a third queue associated with a first virtual circuit of the medium priority group scheduler node; and   a fourth queue associated with a second virtual circuit of the medium priority group scheduler node.   
     
     
         36 . The device of  claim 35 , where, when allocating the first portion of the second part of the bandwidth for the first traffic class, the processor is to:
 monitor a first queue rate associated with the first queue;   monitor a second queue rate associated with the third queue; and   calculate the shaping rate based on the first queue rate and the second queue rate.   
     
     
         37 . The device of  claim 35 , where the first portion corresponds only to the first virtual circuit of the medium priority group. 
     
     
         38 . The device of  claim 34 , where the hierarchical scheduler further comprises:
 a first queue associated with the first virtual circuit group scheduler node;   a second queue associated with a first virtual circuit of the medium priority group scheduler node; and   a third queue associated with a first virtual circuit of the high priority group scheduler node.   
     
     
         39 . The device of  claim 35 , where when allocating the first portion of the second part of the bandwidth for the first traffic class, the processor is to:
 monitor a first queue rate associated with the first queue;   monitor a second queue rate associated with the second queue;   monitor a third queue rate associated with the third queue; and   calculate the shaping rate based on the first queue rate, the second queue rate, and the third queue rate.   
     
     
         40 . The device of  claim 39 , where, when monitoring the first queue rate, the processor is to: measure and update the first queue rate at a defined interval.