Overview of Traffic Policing and Traffic Shaping
By monitoring the rate of traffic entering a network, traffic policing and traffic shaping limit traffic and resource usage to better serve users.
If the transmit rate of packets is larger than the receive rate of packets or the rate of an interface on a downstream device is smaller than that of the connected interface on the upstream device, network congestion occurs. If traffic sent by users is not limited, continuous burst data from many users will aggravate network congestion. Traffic sent by users must be limited to efficiently use limited network resources and better serve more users.
Traffic policing and traffic shaping limit traffic and resources used by the traffic by monitoring the traffic rate.
Traffic Policing
Traffic policing discards excess traffic to limit the traffic within a proper range and to protect network resources and user benefits.
Traffic Shaping
Traffic shaping is a measure to adjust the transmit rate of traffic. When the rate of the inbound interface on a downstream device is lower than that of the outbound interface on an upstream device or burst traffic occurs, traffic congestion may occur on the inbound interface of the downstream device. You can configure traffic shaping on the outbound interface of the upstream device so that outgoing traffic is sent at an even rate, which prevents congestion.
Traffic policing discards excess traffic, while traffic shaping buffer excess traffic in a token bucket. When there are sufficient tokens in the token bucket, the device forwards the buffered packets at an even rate. Traffic shaping increases the delay, whereas traffic policing does not.