BURST REDUCTION PROPERTIES OF THE LEAKY BUCKET FLOW-CONTROL SCHEME INATM NETWORKS

The leaky bucket is a simple flow control scheme for ATM networks. An arriving cell can be transmitted only if it finds a token in the token buffer, in which case it is transmitted instantaneously by consuming a token. If the token buffer is empty, the cell has to wait until the generation of a new token. For purposes of analysis we assume an infin ite cell buffer. The control parameter is the token buffer size C. We examine the burstiness of the output how as a function of C and show t hat the burstiness increases with C. In particular the output flow is always less bursty than the input flow. This monotonicity simplifies o ptimal choice of the token buffer size. Our result is true for fairly arbitrary input hows and deterministic token generation times.