Modularized scheduling engine for traffic management in a network processor

Described embodiments provide for scheduling packets for transmission by a network processor. A traffic manager generates a scheduling hierarchy having a root scheduler and N scheduler levels. The network processor generates tasks corresponding to received packets. A finite state machine (FSM) enqueues the received task in the associated queue. The queue has a corresponding scheduler level M, with a corresponding parent scheduler at each of M-1 levels in the scheduling hierarchy, where M is a positive integer less than or equal to N. Nodes at each of the N scheduling levels send messages only with one node at a relative next higher level and with one or more nodes at a relative next lower level. Each node in the scheduling hierarchy updates corresponding statistics and control indicators based on messages received from the node at the next higher level and the one or more nodes at the next lower level.