The committed information rate (CIR) for a meter is the long-term average rate at which traffic is considered conforming traffic or in-profile traffic. The higher the rate, the greater the expected throughput. The user can configure the burst above the CIR and up to the PIR for brief periods of time. The amount of burst is determined by the CBS and MBS values configured for the meter.
When defining the CIR for a meter, the value specified is the administrative CIR for the meter. The 7210 SAS devices have a number of native rates in the hardware that determine the operational CIR for the meter. The user has some control over how the administrative CIR is converted to an operational CIR if the hardware does not support the exact CIR and PIR combination specified. See Adaptation rule for meters for more information about the interpretation of the administrative CIR.