Available bandwidth is the bandwidth usable by a parent scheduler to distribute to its child queues and schedulers. The available bandwidth is limited by the parent’s schedulers association with its parent scheduler. If the parent scheduler has a parent of its own and the parent schedulers defined rate value, then available bandwidth is distributed to the child queues and schedulers using a within-CIR distribution phase and an above-CIR distribution phase. Distribution in each phase is based on a combination of the strict priority of each child and the relative weight of the child at that priority level. Separate priority and weight controls are supported per child for each phase.