Interface-based Rate Limiting
Interface-based rate limiting controls the total rate of all packets sent or received on an interface.
It uses the token bucket mechanism to control traffic rates. If it is configured on an interface, all packets passing through this interface must be processed by the token bucket. If there are enough tokens in the token bucket for packet forwarding, packets are sent out from the interface. Otherwise, packets are discarded or buffered.
Interface-based rate limiting can be configured in the inbound or outbound direction. The following example describes outbound traffic shaping on an interface.
Process
The following example illustrates the process of outbound traffic shaping on an interface using the single-rate-single-bucket rate.
The interface-based rate limiting process is as follows:
- If there are sufficient tokens in the bucket, the system sends the packets and decreases the number of tokens accordingly.
- If tokens in the bucket are insufficient for packet forwarding, the system places the packets into the buffer queue. If the buffer queue is full, the system discards the packets.
- When there are packets in the buffer queue, the system compares the number of packets with the number of tokens in the token bucket. If there are sufficient tokens, the system forwards packets until all the packets in the buffer queue are sent.
