This paper investigates the performance of a rate adaptation buffer in the
case that the arriving cell stream is generated by an on/off-source, where
both the on-periods and the off-periods are geometrically distributed. The
ratio between the input rate and the output rate takes an arbitrary integer
value greater than one. Under the assumption of an infinite storage capaci
ty, exact explicit expressions are obtained for the mean values and the tai
l distributions of the buffer contents and the cell delay. Furthermore, an
approximation is derived for the cell loss ratio in a finite-capacity buffe
r. Some numerical results are presented and discussed. (C) 2001 Elsevier Sc
ience Ltd. All rights reserved.