An actuator is disclosed which is required to implement, without errors, a generic rate-based packet sending algorithm over a packet switching network such as the Internet. Typical applications are audio/video streaming over UDP or TCP, audio/video conference over IP, Voice over IP, real-time data delivery, IP Television, Digital Video Broadcast over IP, client- server or peer-to-peer content distribution, Content Delivery Networks, Hybrid peer-to- peer/CDNs. Rate-based packet sending is of key importance for providing Quality of Service/Experience (QoS/QoE) over the Internet because it provides reduced queuing delays and jitters, and reduced buffer sizes both at application and network layers.