Leaky bucket analysis for ATM networks

The authors investigate input rate control in ATM (asynchronous transfer mode) networks. More specifically, they focus on the policing mechanisms, whose function is to assure that the sources abide by their initial specification. They study one such mechanism, the leaky bucket, and use the uniform arrival and service model, as well as simulation to study its effectiveness in bursty traffic. They show that leaky bucket is not adequate for deletion of abusive traffic cells, and therefore, they propose a marking scheme to delete cells only in the case of congestion. They also introduce the notion of reaction time in input rate control and show that the use of multiple leaky buckets in parallel offers an effective tradeoff between average rate enforcement and reaction to sudden bursts.<>