Differentiated services for a network processor

A differentiated services device is described. In one embodiment, the differentiated services device includes: a traffic metering unit to indicate whether an information element in a flow conforms to a peak rate and a committed rate; a storage congestion metering unit to determine whether the information element should be accepted or discarded; and a marking unit to mark the information element with one of a plurality of mark values, wherein the marking unit is coupled to the traffic metering unit and the storage congestion metering unit. Also, a method of marking an information element in a flow is described. In one embodiment, the method includes: indicating whether the information element in the flow conforms to a peak rate and a committed rate; determining whether the information element should be accepted or discarded; and marking the information element with one of a plurality of mark values.