Streams of information are transmitted over corresponding channels of an
information network, by associating a number of queues with the channels,
enqueuing incoming descriptors representing information to be transmitted
over a given channel in a queue associated with the channel, and dequeuing
the descriptors from the queues by operation of a scheduler. A small and
fixed-size buffer is associated with each channel, and a watermark
threshold value corresponding to a minimum occupancy level is defined for
each of the transmit buffers. When the occupancy of a given buffer falls
below the buffer's threshold value, a corresponding watermark event signal
identifying the channel associated with the buffer is produced. The
watermark event signals are provided to the scheduler, and information
represented by descriptors dequeued by the scheduler are delivered to
corresponding buffers according to the order of the watermark event
signals provided to the scheduler.
