A scheduler in an Ethernet switch and method for scheduling and queuing received unicast packets. The scheduler determines a destination address and a traffic priority of a received packet, and searches for a stored association between the destination address and an interfacing port of the Ethernet switch. When a stored association is found, the received packet is scheduled and queued in one of the priority buffers of the output buffer in an associated interfacing port according to the received packet's traffic priority. When no association is found, the scheduler floods the received unicast packet in a flooding buffer in every interfacing outgoing port of the Ethernet switch. The flooded packet may be scheduled as low priority traffic, or may be prioritized in relation to other flooded unicast packets based on each flooded unicast packet's traffic priority.