A dynamic bandwidth allocation (DBA) processor comprises a DBA co-processor having DBA co-processor components and operative to perform and accelerate DBA functions, and a processing core logically coupled to the DBA co-processor through a processing bus and operative to configure and dynamically control all the DBA co-processor components and to run sections of algorithms that cannot be accelerated on the DBA co-processor. The DBA processor significantly accelerated the bandwidth allocation in a communications network such as an optical communications network or a fast wireless network. The DBA co-processor and the processing core may be integrated on a chip.