Policy-based synchronization of per-class resources between routers in a data network

A program product for use by a policy server in managing a data network including an upstream router and a downstream router, said upstream router including one or more data handling queues, said program product comprising:

• a computer-usable medium;
• and
• a configuration manager within said computer-usable medium that configures the one or more data handling queues of the upstream router to provide a selected bandwidth to one or more of a plurality of service classes of data flows and transmits to the downstream router one or more virtual pool capacities each corresponding to a bandwidth at the upstream router for one or more associated service classes among said plurality of service classes.

A method of managing a data network including an upstream router and a downstream router, said upstream router including one or more data handling queues, said method comprising:

• a policy server configuring the one or more data handling queues of the upstream router to provide a selected bandwidth to one or more of a plurality of service classes of data flows;
• and
• the policy server transmitting to the downstream router one or more virtual pool capacities each corresponding to a bandwidth at the upstream router for one or more associated service classes among said plurality of service classes.

A router, comprising:

• a data plane having an input port connectable to an upstream link and an output port connectable to a downstream link, said data plane including a plurality of data handling queues;
• and
• a control plane including a policy control interface through which a policy server configures which of the data handling queues is assigned to handle each of a plurality of types of Integrated Services flows.