A demonstration of the token bucket algorithm. Useful for rate limiting networking. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Token_bucket (source: http://code.activestate.com/recipes/511490-implementation-of-the-token-bucket-algorithm/)

token_bucket.py

from time import time

class TokenBucket(object):
    """An implementation of the token bucket algorithm.

    >>> bucket = TokenBucket(80, 0.5)
    >>> print bucket.consume(10)
    True
    >>> print bucket.consume(90)
    False
    """
    def __init__(self, tokens, fill_rate):
        """tokens is the number of tokens in the bucket and the starting
        capacity. fill_rate is the rate in tokens/second that the bucket
        will be refilled."""
        self.capacity = float(tokens)
        self._tokens = float(tokens)
        self.fill_rate = float(fill_rate)
        self.timestamp = time()

    def consume(self, tokens):
        """Consume tokens from the bucket. Returns True if there were
        sufficient tokens otherwise False."""
        if tokens <= self.tokens:
            self._tokens -= tokens
        else:
            return False
        return True

    def get_tokens(self):
        now = time()
        if self._tokens < self.capacity:
            delta = self.fill_rate * (now - self.timestamp)
            self._tokens = min(self.capacity, self._tokens + delta)
        self.timestamp = now
        return self._tokens
    tokens = property(get_tokens)

if __name__ == '__main__':
    ### Demonstration:
    from time import sleep
    fill_rate = 10     # The refill rate in tokens per sec
    capacity = 80      # The capacity and starting size
    bucket = TokenBucket(capacity, fill_rate)
    print "tokens =", bucket.tokens
    print "consume(10) =", bucket.consume(10)
    print "consume(10) =", bucket.consume(70)
    print "consume(10) =", bucket.consume(1)
    sleep(1)
    print "tokens =", bucket.tokens
    sleep(1)
    print "tokens =", bucket.tokens
    print "consume(90) =", bucket.consume(90)
    print "tokens =", bucket.tokens
    sleep(5)
    print "tokens =", bucket.tokens