PACKET PROCESSING SYSTEM ARCHITECTURE AND METHOD

The application relates to a system 104 for processing and selectively modifying one or more quality of service fields within a received packet. The system is coupled, at an ingress 110, to one or more switch-side devices 116, and at the egress 112, to one or more network-side devices 114.The packet comprises a multi-dimensional quality of service indicator. The multi-dimensional quality of service indicator for the packet comprises an ingress quality of service indicator, an egress quality of service indicator, and packet marking control information. A packet parser 130 is configured to parse the packet and provide context pointers to the start of one or more encapsulated layers of the packet. A packet modification engine 132 selectively modifies quality of service fields within packet fragments undergoing processing with one or more candidate quality of service indicators based on one or more of a VLAN mapping scheme, a Content Addressable Memory (CAM) based search, or a QoS mapping scheme. The system also comprises a fragment processor to assemble the packet fragments of the packet undergoing processing for egress from the system.