Method and apparatus for distributing credits to multiple shapers to enable shaping traffic targets in packet communication networks

1. A system for monitoring and modifying the behavior of a plurality of distributed shapers, said system comprising:

a server;

said server in communication with a plurality of clients on a plurality of traffic processing devices, each client comprising at least a portion of a shaper of said plurality of distributed shapers, wherein said server is configured to receive statistics related to said datagram traffic from said clients and to retain the same; and

said server is configured to utilize said statistics to send commands to said clients to modify the behavior of said plurality of distributed shapers, wherein the commands comprise at least two new parameters for the plurality of shapers selected from the group consisting of a new maximum rate, a new rate, and a new weight, and wherein the behavior of the plurality of distributed shapers is further modified based on at least one shaping scheme and the behavior of the plurality of distributed shapers is coordinated such that the plurality of distributed shapers collectively shape traffic to a desired rate.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein said commands instruct said clients to provide the new maximum rate for a priority related to at least one of said shapers.

3. The system of claim 1 , wherein said commands instruct said clients to provide the new weight for a channel related to at least one of said shapers.

4. The system of claim 1 , wherein said commands instruct said clients to assign a total rate to each of said at least a portion of a shaper of said plurality of distributed shapers.

5. The system of claim 1 , wherein the statistics further calculate bandwidth remaining and if bandwidth is remaining the server adjusts the traffic flow to fill the remaining bandwidth.

6. The system of claim 1 , wherein the at least one shaping scheme is a scheme selected from:

cloned shaping;

prioritized shaping;

weighted fair queuing; and

fair shaping.

7. A method for modifying the behavior of a plurality of distributed shapers in a network comprising a plurality of clients on a plurality of traffic processing devices, said method comprising:

for each shaper:

determining a demand sum across all clients; and

for at least one server in communication with the plurality of client:

wherein the determining utilizes data provided by a statistics record related to datagram traffic; and

generating a command record for modifying the behavior of each shaper of the plurality of distributed shapers based on the statistics record, wherein the command record is a message comprising at least two new parameters for the plurality of shapers selected from the group consisting of a new maximum rate, a new rate, and a new weight and wherein the behavior of the plurality of distributed shapers is further modified based on at least one shaping scheme and the behavior of the plurality of distributed shapers is coordinated such that the plurality of distributed shapers collectively shape traffic to a desired rate.

8. The method of claim 7 wherein said demand sum comprises the sum of demand across all clients for a shaper.

9. The method of claim 7 wherein said demand sum comprises the sum of the weights of all channels in a given priority.

10. The method of claim 7 wherein said rate for a priority comprises an allocated rate for an instance priority pair, divided by a demand ratio.

11. The method of claim 7 , further comprising for each priority of a shaper instance, calculating bandwidth remaining.

12. The method of claim 7 , wherein if the datagram traffic of one shaper is modified, the behavior of the remaining shapers in the plurality of distributed shapers will be modified to continue to collectively shape traffic to the desired rate.

13. The method of claim 12 , wherein the desired rate is based on the load or demand placed on each shaper of the plurality of distributed shapers.

14. The method of claim 7 , wherein the at least one shaping scheme is a scheme selected from:

cloned shaping;

prioritized shaping;

weighted fair queuing; and

fair shaping.

15. A system for monitoring and modifying the behavior of a plurality of distributed shapers, said system comprising:

a server;

the server in communication with a plurality of clients on a plurality of traffic processing devices, each client comprising at least a portion of a shaper of said plurality of distributed shapers;

wherein said server is configured to receive statistics related to said datagram traffic and to retain the same; and

said server is configured to utilize said statistics to send commands to said clients to modify the behavior of said plurality of distributed shapers, wherein the commands comprise at least two new parameters for the plurality of shapers selected from the group consisting of a new maximum rate, a new rate, and a new weight and wherein if there is a change in the datagram traffic, the server will send further commands to further modify the behavior of the plurality of distributed shapers such that the plurality of distributed shapers will continue to collectively shape traffic to a desired target rate.

16. The system of claim 15 , wherein said commands instruct said clients to provide the new maximum rate for a priority related to at least one of said shapers.

17. The system of claim 15 , wherein said commands instruct said clients to provide the new weight for a channel related to at least one of said shapers.

18. The system of claim 15 , wherein said commands instruct said clients to assign a total rate to each of said at least a portion of a shaper of said plurality of distributed shapers.