Support for distinguished minimum latency traffic guard band

A method comprising:

• in a network device:
• identifying, in a media access client (MAC) client of the network device and prior to receiving a first packet, a scheduled communication time for communication of the first packet by the network device;
• communicating a guard band activation message from the MAC client to a MAC merge sublayer of the network device via a dedicated communication line directly linking the MAC client and the MAC merge sublayer;
• activating, by the MAC merge sublayer, a guard band at a guard band initiation time, which accounts for worst-case latency in preempting in-progress transmission of a packet with a priority lower than the first packet, prior to the scheduled communication time;
• determining, by the MAC client, an amount of time between the guard band initiation time and the scheduled communication time by taking into account an inter packet gap time
• when the guard band is active, preventing transmission of data with lower priority than the first packet;
• and
• releasing the guard band a predetermined time after the guard band initiation time.

A device comprising:

• a communication interface;
• and
• guard band circuitry including at least a media access client (MAC) and a MAC merge sublayer, and being in communication with the communication interface, the guard band circuitry configured to:
• identify, in the MAC client and prior to receipt by the communication interface of a first packet, a scheduled communication time for communication of the first packet by the communication interface;
• determine, in the MAC client, a guard band initiation time for initiation of a guard band mode, which accounts for worst-case latency in preempting in-progress transmission of a packet with a priority lower than the first packet, prior to the scheduled communication time and prior to receipt of the first packet;
• communicate a guard band initiation message from the MAC client to the MAC merge sublayer via a dedicated communication link directly linking the MAC client and the MAC merge sublayer;
• determine, in the MAC client, an amount of time between the guard band initiation time and the scheduled communication time by taking into account an inter packet gap time;
• at the guard band initiation time and by the MAC merge sublayer, prevent transmission of data with lower priority than the first packet;
• and
• release the guard band a predetermined time after the guard band initiation time.