1. A method, comprising: monitoring the number of received packets stored in a buffer relative to a threshold value; and if the number of received packets stored in the buffer exceeds the threshold value, then initiating a random early discard mechanism to randomly discard one or more of the received packets; and biasing operation of the random early discard mechanism to alter drop probabilities corresponding to individual packets based on one or more attributes associated with the respective individual packets, wherein biasing operation of the random early discard mechanism for a given packet comprises: maintaining a maximum drop probability value; and based on one or more attributes associated with the given packet, identifying cached information associated with previous policy decisions made for previous packet flows; calculating an adjusted drop probability value for the given packet based on the cached information associated with the previous policy decisions made for the previous packet flows; and in response to determining that the adjusted drop probability is less than the maximum drop probability value, determining whether to discard the given packet based at least in part on the one or more attributes associated with the given packet.