Abstract: In accordance with the present invention a method and apparatus are disclosed in which each data stream of a plurality of data streams is assigned to a queue and each queue is allocated a predetermined maximum numbers of buffers. Once the queue has exhausted its supply of buffers, the data from the corresponding data stream is discarded until buffers are refreshed thereby allowing the remaining data streams to operate in a normal fashion. Accordingly, excessive buffer usage by an individual data stream is prevented, as well as excessive demand of other related system resources such as CPU time. The data stream which has had its data discarded will begin having its incoming data processed upon the next refresh operation providing the queue associated with that data stream has had additional buffers allocated. The discarded data is lost and is not recovered. The refresh operation is performed in a manner that provides prioritization of the queues and a high degree of fairness within each priority level.