Methods and systems for providing differentiated quality of service in a communications system

A method of prioritizing a packet of data transmitted by an application in a data processing system to facilitate transmission and prioritization of said packet in a communications system, comprising the steps of:

• receiving, by a marker, said packet from said application in said data processing system;
• examining, by said marker, said packet for predefined criteria;
• setting, by said marker, a value of QoS bits in said packet based on said predefined criteria;
• receiving, by a multi-VC bridge, said packet;
• inspecting, by said multi-VC bridge, said packet to determine said value of said QoS bits;
• selecting, by said multi-VC bridge, a selected one of a plurality of Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) Permanent Virtual Circuits (PVCs) by mapping said value of said QoS bits to a PVC via a mapping table;
• and
• transmitting, by said multi-VC bridge, said packet to a destination address via said selected one of said plurality of PVCs.

A communications system for transmitting a packet of data from an application in a data processing system to a destination address via a selected one of a plurality of Permanent Virtual Circuits (PVCs) selected by a multiple Virtual Circuit (multi-VC) bridge based on a value of Quality of Service (QoS) bits in said packet, comprising:

• means for receiving said packet;
• means for inspecting said packet to determine said value of said QoS bits;
• means for selecting said selected one of said plurality of PVCs by mapping said value of said QoS bits to a corresponding PVC in a mapping table;
• and
• means for transmitting said packet to said destination address via said selected one of said plurality of PVCs.

A system for prioritizing a packet of data transmitted by an application in a data processing system, comprising:

• means for receiving said packet from said application in said data processing system;
• means for examining said packet for predefined criteria;
• means for setting a value of QoS bits in said packet based on said predefined criteria;
• means forwarding said packet to a multi-VC bridge;
• means for inspecting, at said multi-VC bridge, said packet to determine said value of said QoS bits;
• means for selecting, at said multi-VC bridge, a selected one of a plurality of Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) Permanent Virtual Circuits (PVCs) by mapping said value of said QoS bits to a PVC in a mapping table;
• and
• means for transmitting, from said multi-VC bridge, said packet to said destination address via said selected one of said plurality of PVCs.