Burst reduction properties of the leaky bucket flow control scheme in ATM 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 the authors assume an infinite cell buffer. The control parameter is the token buffer size C. The authors examine the burstiness of the output how as a function of C and show that the burstiness increases with C. In particular the output flow is always less bursty than the input flow. This monotonicity simplifies optimal choice of the token buffer size. The result is true for fairly arbitrary input flows and deterministic token generation times