Traffic shaping on non dedicated link

[derekv]

Just a quick question, has there been any new developments / discoveries (new algorithms etc) regarding effective traffic shaping on a non-dedicated link ( eg Comcast with burst ), in the last couple years?
From before I remember that you had to choose to either limit peak bandwidth or the effectiveness of the algorithms would be effected (because actual bandwidth available at a given moment is difficult to know).

Its been a while since I looked.

Thanks