Packet queuing

A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium comprising instructions configured to cause an apparatus to at least:

• handle a packet of a flow based on a packet queuing memory space including a hash entry space configured to maintain a set of H hash entries and a packet queue space configured to maintain a set of Q packet queues, wherein H is greater than Q, wherein a subset of the hash entries in the hash entry space point to ones of the packet queues in the packet queue space and a subset of the hash entries in the hash entry space do not point to ones of the packet queues in the packet queue space, wherein each of the packet queues in the packet queue space that is queuing at least one packet belongs to a set of active queues and is pointed to by a respective one of the hash entries in the hash entry space and each of the packet queues in the packet queue space that is not queuing any packets belongs to a set of available packet queues and is not pointed to by any of the hash entries in the hash entry space.

A method, comprising:

• handling, at an apparatus, a packet of a flow based on a packet queuing memory space including a hash entry space configured to maintain a set of H hash entries and a packet queue space configured to maintain a set of Q packet queues, wherein H is greater than Q, wherein a subset of the hash entries in the hash entry space point to ones of the packet queues in the packet queue space and a subset of the hash entries in the hash entry space do not point to ones of the packet queues in the packet queue space, wherein each of the packet queues in the packet queue space that is queuing at least one packet belongs to a set of active queues and is pointed to by a respective one of the hash entries in the hash entry space and each of the packet queues in the packet queue space that is not queuing any packets belongs to a set of available packet queues and is not pointed to by any of the hash entries in the hash entry space.

An apparatus, comprising:

• a memory configured to provide a packet queuing memory space including a hash entry space configured to maintain a set of H hash entries and a packet queue space configured to maintain a set of Q packet queues, wherein H is greater than Q, wherein a subset of the hash entries in the hash entry space point to ones of the packet queues in the packet queue space and wherein the number of the subset of hash entries in the hash entry space which do not point to ones of the packet queues in the packet queue space is larger than the number of packet queues remaining to be used in the packet queue space;
• and
• a processor configured to handle queuing and dequeuing of packets using the packet queuing memory space.