DRED‐MP: Queue management with multiple levels of drop precedence

There is current interest in differentiated service architectures where packets with different priorities can share the same queue. In the case of congestion, packets marked with higher drop probability are preferentially dropped in order to make buffer room for packets marked with lower drop probability. Active queue management (AQM) based on randomized packet dropping has become a key component of this packet forwarding model. This paper extends our previously developed AQM algorithm called DRED with multiple packet drop precedence to allow for priority treatment of traffic in a network. The main advantage of using the DRED algorithm is the lower parameter configuration complexity it offers and the ease of configuration for a wide range of network conditions. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.