Class-based bandwidth partitioning of a sequence of packets of varying packet classes is performed, such as, but not limited to determining whether or not to admit a packet to a queue based on a probability corresponding to a class of packets associated with the packet, with this probability being based on measured arrival traffic and a fair share based on the length of the queue. Data path processing is performed on each packet to determine whether to admit or drop the packet, and to record the measured received traffic. Control path processing is periodically performed to update these probabilities based on determined arrival rates and fair shares for each class of packets. In this manner, a relatively small amount of processing and resources are required to partition bandwidth for a scalable number of classes of packets.