  We investigate the viability of the braneworld model with energy exchange
between the brane and bulk, by using the most recent observational data related
to the background evolution. We show that this energy exchange behaves like a
source of dark energy and can alter the profile of the cosmic expansion. The
new Supernova Type Ia (SNIa) Gold sample, Supernova Legacy Survey (SNLS) data,
the position of the acoustic peak at the last scattering surface from the
Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) observations and the baryon
acoustic oscillation peak found in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) are used
to constrain the free parameters of this model. To infer its consistency with
the age of the Universe, we compare the age of old cosmological objects with
what computed using the best fit values for the model parameters. At 68% level
of confidence, the combination of Gold sample SNIa, Cosmic Microwave Background
(CMB) shift parameter and SDSS databases provide
$\Omega_m=0.29_{-0.02}^{+0.03}$, $\Omega_{A}=-0.71_{-0.03}^{+0.03}$ and
$\mu=-0.40_{-0.26}^{+0.28}$, hence a spatially flat Universe with
$\Omega_K=0.00_{-0.04}^{+0.04}$. The same combination with SNLS supernova
observation give $\Omega_m=0.27_{-0.02}^{+0.02}$,
$\Omega_{A}=-0.74_{-0.02}^{+0.04}$ and $\mu=0.00_{-0.30}^{+0.30}$ consequently
provides a spatially flat Universe $\Omega_K=-0.01_{-0.03}^{+0.04}$. These
results obviously seem to be compatible with the most recent WMAP results
indicating a flat Universe.
