Greatly improve the rate limit algorithm, so it is correct for a low

ticket to period ratio.

include/ucore/rate_limit.h

@@ -34,12 +34,7 @@
  *
  * uc_ratelimit_init(&r,20, 1, time(NULL));
  *
- * NOTE. The the internals uses integer arithmetic to replenish the tickets,
+ * NOTE. period * tickets * 2 must not exceed the value of a long
- * this can lead to greater errors estimating the available tickets the smaller
- * the number of tickets is in relation to the period. The arithmetic is scaled
- * by 1000 currently, so if ticket = 1 and period = 60, we get 1000/60 = 16. This
- * should be 16.6667, which is an error of about 3.6%, which means we really just
- * rate limit to 1 per 62 seconds.
  *
  * for (;;) {
  *    int fd = accept(..);
@@ -59,12 +54,11 @@ struct RateLimit {
 
     //internal fields:
 
-    //scaled up number of tickets, to avoid floating point
+    //how much each ticket is worth.
-    //math
+    long ticket_cost;
-    long scaled_tickets;
 
-    //number of tickets we have (scaled up)
+    //money we have to "buy" tickets
-    long available_tickets;
+    long funds;
     //time of the previos period
     long last_ts;
 };
@@ -72,6 +66,8 @@ struct RateLimit {
 /**
  * Initialize a struct RateLimit, which can hand out @tickets per @period
  * the perioid must be in the same units as the current_ts
+ * 
+ * NOTE. period * tickets * 2 must not exceed the range of the RateLimit.funds
  *
  * @param r RateLimit to initialize
  * @param tickets number of tickets (bucket depth)

src/rate_limit.c

@@ -1,20 +1,17 @@
 #include "ucore/rate_limit.h"
 
-#define SCALE_FACTOR 1000
-
-
 void uc_ratelimit_init(struct RateLimit *r, long tickets, long period, long current_ts)
 {
     r->tickets = tickets;
-    r->scaled_tickets = tickets * SCALE_FACTOR;
+    r->ticket_cost = tickets * period;
     r->period = period;
-    r->available_tickets = r->scaled_tickets;
+    r->funds = r->ticket_cost * tickets;
     r->last_ts = current_ts;
 }
 
 void uc_ratelimit_reset(struct RateLimit *r, long current_ts)
 {
-    r->available_tickets = r->scaled_tickets;
+    r->funds = r->ticket_cost * r->tickets;
 
     if (current_ts)
         r->last_ts = current_ts;
@@ -36,22 +33,21 @@ int uc_ratelimit_allow(struct RateLimit *r, long current_ts)
         diff_period = 0;
     }
 
-    //Calculate the number of tickets that became available since 
+    //Calculate the cost of tickets that became available since 
     //the last time. 
-    r->available_tickets += diff_period  * 
+    r->funds += diff_period  * 
-                            (r->scaled_tickets / r->period);
+                            ((r->tickets * r->ticket_cost) / r->period);
 
     //throttle handing out tickets
-    //
+    if (r->funds > r->ticket_cost * r->tickets) 
-    if (r->available_tickets > r->scaled_tickets) 
+        r->funds = r->ticket_cost * r->tickets;
-        r->available_tickets = r->scaled_tickets;
 
-    //If we have at least one ticket, we can allow 
+    //If we have enough to buy atleast one ticket, we can allow 
-    if (r->available_tickets >=  1 * SCALE_FACTOR) {
+    if (r->funds >=  r->ticket_cost) {
-        r->available_tickets -= 1 * SCALE_FACTOR;
+        r->funds -= r->ticket_cost;
         allowed = 1;
     } else {
-        //no more tickets.
+        //not enough to buy a ticket
         allowed = 0;
     }