Method for monitoring a bit rate of at least one virtual connection

Abstract

A method for monitoring at least one bit rate of at least one virtual connection, of a plurality of virtual connections, for which connection cells incoming on a transmission link are checked with respect to their temporal frequency. A temporal, average cell spacing of the incoming connection cells is provided according to an average bit rate of the at least one virtual connection and a bit rate on the transmission link. A central counter is clocked by a central counting clock and a counter value of the central counter is read at each of the incoming connection cells and the counter value that is connection-associated with the at least one virtual connection is stored. A counter value difference is formed from the stored counter value for the incoming connection cell and from the counter value that has been previously stored connection-associated with the at least one virtual connection for a previously arrived connection cell of the same virtual connection. A deviation is calculated of a respectively current cell spacing from the prescribed, average cell spacing for the respectively incoming connection cell using the counter value difference. A monitoring counter value is formed by summing the deviation of the cell spacing. A special handling of the virtual connection is implemented when the monitoring counter value transgress a first threshold value.