In a packet communications network, the addition or deletion of a connection to the network by a user is governed by a link traffic metric which represents the effective capacity of each link in the network which participates in the packet connection route. The link metric is calculated in real-time and updated by simple vector addition or subtraction. Moreover, this link metric is also used to calculate leaky bucket parameters which govern the access of packets to the network once the connection is set up. A packet network using these link metrics and metric generation techniques provides maximum packet throughput while, at the same time, preserving grade of service guarantees.