The multi-level leaky bucket mechanism

In this paper we present a new state estimation method based on the leaky bucket (LB) mechanism. It is called the multi-level leaky bucket (MLLB) and can be used to determine the current state of a multirate source, e.g, a Markov modulated process. The MLLB provides information about the instantaneous bit rate of a source allowing more effective flow control. We compare the performance of our mechanism to a simple leaky bucket. We show that our mechanism is able to police both the average bit rate and the average burst duration of a source which cannot be policed by a single leaky bucket. Our results were obtained by a simulation of both mechanisms.