than the drop probability the discard signal is asserted in alternate implementations probability comparator 170 can use other dropping schemes for instance comparator 170 can be supplemented with a register allowing it to track how many packets m have passed through each queue since the last packet was dropped for that queue the drop comparison can then compare the random number to mp i instead of p i one optional element of traffic conditioner 126 is aqs filter 174 filtered values may equivalently be calculated e g by packet pipeline 122 although this requires access to register 164 filter 174 accepts a cqs value from packet pipeline 122 along with the corresponding port and qp when that cqs changes or at fixed intervals filter 174 retrieves the corresponding aqs port qp value from register 164 after filtering the updated aqs value is written back to aqs port qp preferably filter 174 implements an exponentially weighted moving average ewma e g represented by the equation where n is a positive integer the exact value selected for n will depend on the desired damping characteristics and should be used to determine the provisioned buffer size of the queue many alternate register structures can be devised for a traffic conditioner fig8 shows another traffic conditioner embodiment 180 with a different profile register structure 182 each profile in register 182 stores t h t u03b4 and a corresponding set of drop probabilities p 0 p 1 p 7 whereas the previous embodiment allowed only dilation and translation of a single basic curve shape embodiment 180 allows different curve shapes to be.