A Weighted Random Early Detection (WRED) algorithm is described. The WRED algorithm provides fairness to responsive TCP and non-responsive UDP traffic at a buffer of a communications system. Because TCP traffic is responsive to congestion occurrences while UDP traffic is not, without controls, UDP will monopolize the buffer bandwidth. This invention solves the problem by applying congestion control alogrithms to TCP and UDP traffic separately. Discard thresholds for UDP traffic are dynamically modified in a manner that limits UDP traffic to a provisioned percentage of the buffer's available bandwidth, while a traditional WRED algorithm is applied to TCP traffic.
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