High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! The leaky bucket is an algorithm used in packet switched computer networks and telecommunications networks to check that data transmissions conform to defined limits on bandwidth and burstiness (a measure of the unevenness or variations in the traffic flow). The leaky bucket algorithm is also used in leaky bucket counters, e.g. to detect when the average or peak rate of random or stochastic events or stochastic processes exceed defined limits.