Dynamic Flow Redistribution for Head of Line Blocking Avoidance

An apparatus and related methods are provided to greatly reduce the negative impact of head of line (HOL) blocking. At a device (e.g., switch, router, etc.) configured to forward packets in a network, new packets that are to be forwarded from the device to other devices in the network are stored in a memory of the device. Entries are added to a queue link list for the at least one queue as new packets are added to the at least one queue. A detection is made when the at least one queue exceeds a threshold indicative of head of line blocking. For new packets that are to be added to the at least one queue, entries are added to a sub-queue link list for the plurality of sub-queues such that packets are assigned to different ones of a plurality of sub-queues when the at least one queue exceeds the threshold. Packets are output from the memory for the plurality of sub-queues according to the sub-queue link list.