Patent ID: 7289447

Claim:
A method of traffic regulation in a packet communication network, the network including a traffic regulator for regulating traffic at the packet level, the traffic regulator including a bucket mechanism, the bucket mechanism including a token bucket associated with a subscriber, the token bucket being configured to receive new tokens at a fill rate and configured with a bucket depth, the token bucket determining conformance of network traffic destined for the subscriber to allow action to be taken in a presence of non-conforming network traffic, the method comprising: handling packets destined for the subscriber that arrive at the regulator in accordance with the token bucket configuration for the token bucket associated with the subscriber, including determining conformance of network traffic destined for the subscriber; measuring a demand placed on the packet communication network by the subscriber; dynamically adjusting the token bucket configuration for the token bucket associated with the subscriber based on the demand to affect the way that packets arriving at the regulator are handled; and wherein the bucket mechanism includes a second bucket arrangement associated with the subscriber wherein packets that arrive at the regulator are further handled in accordance with the second bucket arrangement, and wherein measuring the demand further comprises monitoring the second bucket arrangement as packets are handled to measure the demand.