Analysis of leaky bucket mechanism based on burstiness characterization

Abstract

In high-speed networks, a congestion control strategy has to manage bandwidth allocation based on the characteristics of input traffic sources. Accordingly, the definition of traffic characterization becomes significant in all aspects concerning network performance. In this paper, the burstiness characterization of a traffic stream is based on a virtual queue principle. We study the leaky bucket mechanism as a regulator element that controls input traffic before access to a network, as well as inside a network. To protect an input traffic stream, we investigate the optimal parameter settings of a leaky bucket. In addition, we analyse the worst case performance, and obtain upper bounds on loss probability and packet delay. We also determine the characteristics of an output stream in the worst case. Such performance bounds reveal the effectiveness of a leaky bucket, and provide enough information for the QOS satisfaction of the network users.