Packet scheduling apparatus

A packet scheduling apparatus for scheduling traffic in which a premium packet, belonging to premium traffic which requires real time characteristic, and a low priority packet, belonging to low priority traffic which does not require the real time characteristic, are mingled, comprising:

• a packet input section into which the packets are input;
• a packet buffer to which the packets received by the packet input section are written;
• a packet queue group which classifies said packets from said packet input section into traffic classes to which respective packets belong and queues the packets in a premium packet queue and a low priority packet queue;
• a packet dividing section which divides said low priority packet, the division being calculated according to a load state of the premium packets such that the divided low priority packets have a fixed length determined in accordance with the load state;
• a scheduler section which schedules said packets;
• and a packet output section which reads said packets scheduled by the scheduler section from said packet buffer, and transmits the scheduled packets, wherein said scheduler section further comprises a packet quality monitoring section which provides notification of a request to change the existing scheduling if the premium packet is input into said packet queue group and it is determined that the low priority packet which has been already scheduled causes a delay or a delay jitter in transmission of the premium packet and deteriorates a required quality of the premium packet.