Traffic shaping for TCP networks: TCP leaky bucket

Because of the oscillation of window on TCP window control mechanism, Internet applications cannot get rate and burstiness guaranteed through TCP even if the network layer provides guaranteed service or explicit network available service rates. Therefore, in this paper we present a new technique, called TCP leaky bucket (TCPLB), to realize not only rate but also burstiness guarantees for the TCP Internet applications. Instead of adding an independent leaky bucket shaper on the output of TCP, the proposed method adapts the window size in the TCP widow to regulate the sending pattern of TCP output. Further, due to filter bank summation property under min-plus algebra, the TCPLB is very easy to extend to multiple leaky buckets so that further service differentiation can be achieved.