Assigning minimum levels of bandwidth to be allocated to specific traffic flows to guarantee levels of service or assigning maximum levels of bandwidth to be allocated to specific traffic flows so that they do not impede other flows of traffic.

This helps to ensure that the traffic may consume bandwidth at least at the guaranteed rate by assigning a greater priority queue if the guarantee is not being met. Traffic shaping also ensures that the traffic cannot consume bandwidth greater than the maximum at any given instant in time. Flows that are greater than the maximum rate are subject to traffic policing.