Ring buffer

A ring buffer is a buffer (usually in main memory) which is defined so that logically the 'end' is joined to the 'start' (both of those being in terms of the buffer's actual storage area, not the 'start' and 'end' of the data currently actually held in the buffer). That way, adding additional items up to the storage end causes the next item to be placed at the storage start. The advantage of a ring buffer is that data items never need to be 'shuffled' (i.e. copied down towards the storage start) as other data items at the data start are removed.