Flow state aware management of qos through dynamic aggregate bandwidth adjustments

A method of operating a packet subnetwork comprising:

• partitioning of one or more physical links into a number of aggregates, where each aggregate is assigned an amount of capacity and at least one aggregate is assigned to one or more donor aggregates co-existing on the same link or links as the assigned aggregates, so that any one of the at least one aggregate
• may increase its capacity by borrowing capacity from one or more of its donor aggregates, or
• may decrease its capacity by giving back capacity to one or more of the donor aggregates;
• receiving one or more communication packets indicative of a commencement of a packet communication through a subnet, the packet communication comprising a flow consisting of a plurality of packets;
• responsive to recognition of the commencement of a new packet flow,
• storing a flow identifier,
• enabling identification of packets belonging to the commenced packet communication flow and associating that flow identifier with one or more of the aggregates, including or excluding the donor aggregates,
• retrieving policy information relating to any initial or sustained QoS treatment of the flow, and
• determining an initial or sustained discard probability;
• and,
• responsive to a policy determination and a QoS treatment determination related to the flow identifier,
• retrieving the policy determination and QoS treatment determination associated with the flow of a latest arriving packet, and
• determining if one or several predetermined thresholds or limits have been reached, or will be reached if the latest arriving packet is transmitted.