A comparison of token-bucket based multi-color marking techniques

During the last two decades three important architectural models were designed and standardized: the ATM reference model, the Differentiated Services (DiffServ) architecture and recently the Metro-Ethernet (MEF), the evolving Ethernet-based access network. Although the three architectures provide a substantially different networking model, they all assume inter-AS service level agreements (SLAs), where edge routers perform traffic metering or policing according to the SLA traffic parameters over an aggregate stream (An aggregate is a group of connections, for example all the connections of a small company, and the agreement controls an aggregate) and labels each packet as it arrives according to its conformance. The core routers, using e.g., active queue management mechanisms, identify the packet and react, accordingly. The different packet marking differentiates between service aggregate. All the above standards suggest multiple SLA parameters, using an average committed rate and an average peak rate, each with its own allowed amount of burstiness.