The ‘leaky bucket’ policing method in the ATM (asynchronous transfer mode) network

Abstract The new asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) will be used for the information transport in the future broadband network. An important function of the ATM network is bandwidth enforcement or policing. The so‐called ‘leaky bucket’ algorithm can be used to monitor and enforce the bit rate of a constant bit rate (CBR) connection. The parameters of the ‘leaky bucket’ algorithm depend on the bit rate of the connection and on the cell delay jitter. Sugestions for setting the parameters of the ‘leaky bucket’ algorithm are provided in this paper. Furthermore, a ‘dual leaky bucket’ algorithm is proposed to police the traffic parameters of a variable bit rate (VBR) connection. The ‘dual leaky bucket’ approach could also be used to define a VBR bearer service in the future broadband network.