Scheduling hierarchy in a traffic manager of a network processor

Described embodiments provide for dynamically constructing a scheduling hierarchy of a network processor. A traffic manager generates a tree scheduling hierarchy having a root scheduler and N scheduler levels. The network processor generates tasks corresponding to received packets. The traffic manager queues the received task in the associated queue, the queue having a corresponding parent scheduler at each of one or more next levels of the scheduling hierarchy up to the root scheduler. A parent scheduler selects, starting at the root scheduler and iteratively repeating at each of the corresponding N scheduling levels until a queue is selected, a child node to transmit at least one task. The traffic manager forms output packets for transmission based on the at least one task from the selected queue.