Method for regulating traffic of tcp flow

A method for regulating traffic of a Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) flow, to be implemented by a switch, said method comprising:

• a) receiving an incoming TCP packet;
• b) deciding, based on a ratio of current bucket level to bucket size of a token bucket, a logical value of an Explicit Congestion Notification (ECN) bit of the incoming TCP packet;
• c) setting a field of a meter tag of the incoming TCP packet based on a packet length of the incoming TCP packet, the logical value of the ECN bit of the incoming TCP packet, and a current bucket level of the token bucket;
• d) updating the current bucket level of the token bucket based on the field of the meter tag of the incoming TCP packet thus set, and increasing the current bucket level of the token bucket by a preset increment every preset period;
• e) calculating an actual transmission rate at which the incoming TCP packet, the field of the meter tag of which is set to indicate packet forwarding, is to be transmitted;
• and
• f) determining, based on a difference between the actual transmission rate and a target rate, an adjustment value for a rate of change of bucket level, and adjusting the rate of change of bucket level based on the adjustment value such that the actual transmission rate approaches the target rate.