A network element (NE) comprising a receiver configured to receive packets from a plurality of flows, and a processor coupled to the receiver and configured to perform classification on the plurality of flows according to arrivals of the packets to classify the plurality of flows into a heavy-tailed (HT) class and a light-tailed (LT) class assign scheduling weights to the plurality of flows according to the classification, and select a scheduling policy to forward the packets of the plurality of flows according to the scheduling weights.