The following table lists the differences between shaping and policing to help you choose the best solution.
http://www.cisco.com/en/US/tech/tk543/tk545/technologies_tech_note09186a00800a3a25.shtml
| Shaping | Policing | |
|---|---|---|
| Objective | Buffer and queue excess packets above the committed rates. | Drop (or remark) excess packets above the committed rates. Does not buffer.* |
| Token Refresh Rate | Incremented at the start of a time interval. (Minimum number of intervals is required.) | Continuous based on formula: 1 / committed information rate |
| Token Values | Configured in bits per second. | Configured in bytes. |
| Configuration Options |
|
|
| Applicable on Inbound | No | Yes |
| Applicable on Outbound | Yes | Yes |
| Bursts | Controls bursts by smoothing the output rate over at least eight time intervals. Uses a leaky bucket to delay traffic, which achieves a smoothing effect. | Propagates bursts. Does no smoothing. |
| Advantages | Less likely to drop excess packets since excess packets are buffered. (Buffers packets up to the length of the queue. Drops may occur if excess traffic is sustained at high rates.) Typically avoids retransmissions due to dropped packets. | Controls the output rate through packet drops. Avoids delays due to queuing. |
| Disadvantages | Can introduce delay due to queuing, particularly deep queues. | Drops excess packets (when configured), throttling TCP window sizes and reducing the overall output rate of affected traffic streams. Overly aggressive burst sizes may lead to excess packet drops and throttle the overall output rate, particularly with TCP-based flows. |
| Optional Packet Remarking | No | Yes (with legacy CAR feature). |
