In this paper, we propose a new operating mechanism for the rate-controller in the ATM network. This mechanism can fulfill the same function as the traditional leaky bucket scheme, but it allows a simple queuing analysis. An analysis is developed to study the statistical performance of the proposed rate-controller, including the cell delay distribution, the cell loss ratio, and the characterization of the output. Numerical experiments are conducted to illustrate the analysis results and to provide insights into the system design.