where the priority rate is determined step 168 is detailed in fig1 upon completing step 168 processing moves to step 170 which is detailed in fig1 upon completion of step 170 processing moves to step 162 we refer now to fig9 which relates to step 156 and 162 of fig8 at step 180 a test is made to determine if clients remain to be examined if the test is negative processing ends if the test is positive processing proceeds to step 182 where a test is made to determine if a shaper instance remains to be examined if not processing returns to step 180 if a shaper instance remains processing moves to step 184 at step 184 a test is made to determine if a priority needs to be examined if so processing continues with steps 158 from step 156 or 166 from step 162 if the test at step 184 results in the negative processing returns to step 182 a link is also shown from steps 160 or 170 of fig8 where it connects to feature 184 note that fig9 has the same logic as that for step 156 and step 162 of fig8 we refer now to fig1 which relates to step 166 of fig8 step 166 determines how much traffic to give to a priority level across all clients processing starts at step 192 where a test is made to determine if the allocated rate for each instance priority pair is less than zero i e whether it has been initialized or not if it is non negative initialized processing ends if the.