Method of putting a flow of packets of a network for transporting packets of variable length into conformity with a traffic contract

Method of putting a flow of packets of a network for transporting packets of variable length into conformity with a traffic contract, the method consisting, at each arrival of a packet, of determining the theoretical arrival time of the present packet, of comparing the time of this arrival with the theoretical arrival time arid, if this arrival time is earlier than the theoretical time by the jitter tolerance τ defined in the traffic contract, destroying the packet or not further processing the packet, otherwise retransmitting the packet, characterised in that, in order to determine the theoretical arrival time for the present packet, it consists of adding, on the one hand, a time ti−1 related to the previous conforming packet i−1 and which is a function ƒ of the theoretical arrival time TATi−1 and of the actual arrival time θi−1 of the said packet i−1 to, on the other hand, an interpacket time Ti which is a function g, on the one hand, of a negotiated time per unit length T defined in the traffic contract and, on the other hand, of the length λi of the current packet i:

• TATi=ti−1+Ti=ƒ(TATi−1, θi−1)+g(T, λi).

Method of putting into conformity according to one of the previous claims, characterised in that a packet deemed conforming is retransmitted at its actual arrival time θi.