Bounding jitter
Assume we want to eliminate all jitter
We can achieve this by making the network look like a constant delay line
Idea: At the entry of each switch/router, have a regulator that absorbs delay variations by delaying a packet that arrived ahead of its local deadline at previous switch
Traffic characteristics are preserved as traffic passes through the network
Schedulers with regulators are called “rate-controlled” schedulers
Reduce burstiness within network, thus less buffers needed
Average packet delay is higher than with work-conserving schedulers, but that’s fine for hard real-time traffic