A frame forwarding and discard architecture in a Differentiated Services network environment. The architecture comprises a discard logic for discarding a frame from a stream of incoming frames of the network environment in accordance with a discard algorithm, the frame being discarded if a predetermined congestion level in the network environment has been reached, and a predetermined backlog limit of a queue associated with the frame, has been reached. Scheduling logic is also provided for scheduling the order in which to transmit one or more enqueued frames of the network environment.