1. A method, comprising: employing a particular machine to perform steps for implementing a hierarchical schedule for scheduling items, the hierarchical scheduling including a parent schedule and a child schedule; the parent schedule including a parent schedule entry associated with a parent propagated minimum guaranteed scheduling rate; the child schedule including a plurality of child schedule entries, with each of the plurality of child schedule entries associated with propagated minimum guaranteed scheduling rates; wherein said steps include: scheduling, by the parent schedule, traffic including items of a propagated minimum guaranteed scheduling rate type received from the child schedule; and scheduling, by the child schedule, traffic including items of the propagated minimum guaranteed scheduling rate type; wherein the parent propagated minimum guaranteed scheduling rate is determined based on an aggregation of said propagated minimum guaranteed scheduling rates associated with the plurality of child schedule entries.