Data packets are received from a plurality of communication nodes within a local Ethernet network, the data packets including a media access control address (“MAC address”) are indicative of a destination and a data packet traffic class. Based upon the traffic class of each data packet, each of the received data packets are assigned in to one of the plurality of queues of a memory circuit. Based upon the MAC address of each data packet, the data packets within at least one of the queues are sorted. Each queue is then serviced and the data packets within are transmitted based upon the sorting.