Introduction to QoS

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 Before Converged Networks
Traditional data traffic characteristics:
Bursty data flow
First-come, first-served access
Mostly not time-sensitive delays OK
Brief outages are survivable

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 After Converged Networks
Converged traffic characteristics:
Constant small-packet voice flow competes with bursty data flow
Critical traffic must get priority
Voice and video are time-sensitive
Brief outages not acceptable

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 Converged Networks: Quality Issues
Telephone Call: I cannot understand you; your voice is breaking up.
Teleconferencing: The picture is very jerky. Voice not synchronized.
Brokerage House: I needed that information two hours ago. Where is it?
Call Center: Please hold while my screen refreshes.

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 Converged Networks: Quality Issues

Lack of bandwidth: Multiple flows compete for a limited

amount of bandwidth.

End-to-end delay (fixed and variable): Packets have to

traverse many network devices and links that add up to the
overall delay.

Variation of delay (jitter): Sometimes there is a lot of other

traffic, which results in more delay.

Packet loss: Packets may have to be dropped when a link is

congested.

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 Lack of Bandwidth
Maximum available bandwidth equals the bandwidth of the weakest link.

Multiple flows are competing for the same bandwidth, resulting in much less
bandwidth being available to one single application.

Bandwidth max = min (10 Mb/s, 256 kb/s, 512 kb/s, 100 Mb/s) = 256 kb/s

Bandwidth avail = bandwidth max / flows

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 Ways to Increase or Manage Available
Bandwidth
Upgrade the link: the best solution but also the most expensive.
Forward the important packets first.
Compress the payload of Layer 2 frames (it takes time).
Compress IP packet headers.

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 End-to-End Delay
End-to-end delay equals a sum of all propagation, processing, and queuing
delays in the path.

In best-effort networks, propagation delay is fixed, processing and queuing

delays are unpredictable.

Delay = P1 + Q1 + P2 + Q2 + P3 + Q3 + P4 = X ms

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 Types of Delay
Processing Delay: The time it takes for a router to take the packet from an input
interface, examine it, and put it into the output queue of the output interface

Queuing Delay: The time a packet resides in the output queue of a router

Serialization Delay: The time it takes to place the bits on the wire

Propagation Delay: The time it takes to transmit a packet

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 Ways to Reduce Delay
Upgrade the link; the best solution but also the most expensive.

Forward the important packets first.

Compress the payload of Layer 2 frames (it takes time).

Compress IP packet headers.

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 Packet Loss
Tail drops occur when the output queue is full. These are common drops,
which happen when a link is congested.

Many other types of drops exist, usually the result of router congestion, that
are uncommon and may require a hardware upgrade (input drop, ignore,
overrun, frame errors).

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 Ways to Prevent Packet Loss
Upgrade the link; the best solution but also the most expensive.
Guarantee enough bandwidth to sensitive packets.
Prevent congestion by randomly dropping less important packets before
congestion occurs.

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 Define QoS

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 QoS for Converged Networks

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 Step 1: Identify Traffic and Its Requirements

Network audit
Identify traffic on the network

Business audit
Determine how each type of traffic is
important for business

Service levels required
Determine required response time

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 QoS Traffic Requirements: Voice

Latency = 150 ms

Jitter = 30 ms

Loss = 1%

17-106 kb/s guaranteed

priority bandwidth per call

150 b/s (+ Layer 2 overhead)

guaranteed bandwidth for
voice-control traffic per call

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 QoS Requirements: Videoconferencing

Latency = 150 ms

Jitter = 30 ms

Loss = 1%

Minimum priority bandwidth

guarantee required is:
- Video stream + 20%
- For example, a 384-kb/s
stream would require 460
kb/s of priority bandwidth

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 QoS Traffic Requirements: Data

1. Different applications have

different traffic characteristics.
2. Different versions of the same
application can have different
traffic characteristics.
3. Classify data into relative-priority
model with no more than four to
five classes:
- Mission-critical apps: Locally
defined critical applications
- Transactional: Interactive
traffic, preferred data service
- Best-effort: Internet, email,
unspecified traffic
- Less-than-best-effort
: Napster, Kazaa,
peer-to-peer applications
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 Step 2: Divide Traffic into Classes

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 Step 3: Define Policies for Each Traffic Class

Set minimum bandwidth guarantee

Set maximum bandwidth limits

Assign priorities to each class

Manage congestion

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 QoS Policy

A network-wide definition of the specific levels of

quality of service assigned to different classes of
network traffic

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 QoS Policy
Align Network Resources with Business Priorities

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 Three Models for Quality of Service

Best-Effort: No QoS is applied to packets.

IntServ: Applications signal to the network that they require special QoS.

DiffServ: The network recognizes classes that require special QoS.

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 Best-Effort Model

Internet initially based on a best-effort packet delivery service

The default mode for all traffic

No differentiation between types of traffic

Like using standard mail

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 Best-Effort Model

Benefits:
Highly scalable
No special mechanisms required

Drawbacks:
No service guarantees
No service differentiationModel

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 IntServ Model

Some applications have

special bandwidth or delay
requirements or both

IntServ guarantees a
predictable behavior of the
network for these applications

Guaranteed delivery:
no other traffic can use
reserved bandwidth

Like having your own private

courier plane

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 IntServ Model

Provides multiple service levels

Requests specific kind of

service from the network
before sending data

Uses RSVP to reserve

network resources

Uses intelligent queuing

mechanisms End-to-end

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 IntServ Model
RSVP QoS services
- Guaranteed-rate service
- Controlled-load service

RSVP provides policy to QoS mechanisms

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 IntServ Model

Benefits:
Explicit resource admission control (end to end)
Per-request policy admission control (authorization object, policy object)
Signaling of dynamic port numbers (for example, H.323)

Drawbacks:
Continuous signaling because of stateful architecture
Flow-based approach not scalable to large implementations such as the public
Internet (can be made more scalable when combined with elements of the
DiffServ model)

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 DiffServ Model

Network traffic identified by class

Network QoS policy enforces differentiated treatment of traffic classes

You choose level of service for each traffic class

Like using a package delivery service

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 DiffServ Model

Benefits:
- Highly scalable
- Many levels of quality possible

Drawbacks:
- No absolute service guarantee
- Complex mechanisms

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 IntServ Model

IntServ provides end-to-end

QoS service for applications.

RSVP mechanism is used to

provision end-to-end QoS
treatment.

CAC is used through the

network to ensure resource
availability.

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 IntServ Model

RSVP supports the following messages:

PATH
RESV
Error and Confirmation
Teardown

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 IntServ Model

There are three types of QoS services offered by RSVP:

Best Effort

Guaranteed Rate

Controlled Load

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 RSVP Components

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 DiffServ Terminology

Behavior Aggregate (BA): A collection of packets with the same DSCP

crossing a link in a particular direction

Differentiated services code point (DSCP): A value in the IP header used

to select a QoS treatment for a packet

Per-hop behavior (PHB): The externally observable forwarding behavior

(QoS treatment) applied at a DiffServ-compliant node to a DiffServ BA

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 DiffServ Model
In the DiffServ model, QoS behaviors are applied to traffic classes on a per-hop
basis.

Complex traffic classification and conditioning are performed at the network edge.
- Network traffic is categorized into BAs based on the content of some portion of the
packet header.
- Each BA is assigned a DSCP value, and the packet header of each packet
belonging to the BA is marked with the DSCP value.

Network devices in the core use the DSCP value to select a per-hop behavior
for the packet.

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 DSCP Encoding

DS field: The IP version 4 header ToS octet or the IPv6 traffic

class octet, when interpreted in conformance with the definition
given in RFC 2474

DSCP: The first six bits of the DS field, used to select a PHB
(forwarding and queuing method)

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 IPv6 and QoS

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 Per-Hop Behaviors

DSCP selects PHB throughout the network.

Default PHB: (FIFO, tail drop)

EF: Expedited Forwarding
AF: Assured Forwarding
Class-Selector: (IP Precedence) PHB

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 Per-Hop Behaviors

EF PHB:
- Ensures a minimum departure rate
- Guarantees bandwidth (The class is guaranteed an amount of bandwidth with
prioritized forwarding.)
- Polices bandwidth (The class is not allowed to exceed the
guaranteed amount? excess traffic is dropped.)

DSCP value 101110: looks like IP precedence 5 to non-DiffServ compliant

devices
- Bits 5 to 7: 101 = 5 (Same three bits used for IP precedence)
- Bits 3 to 4: 11 = drop probability high
- Bit 2: Just 0

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 Per-Hop Behaviors

AF PHB:
- Guarantees bandwidth
- Allows access to extra bandwidth, if available
Four standard classes (af1, af2, af3, and af4)

DSCP value range: aaadd0

- Where aaa is a binary value of the class
- Where dd is drop probability

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 Per-Hop Behaviors

Each AF class uses three DSCP values.

Each AF class is independently forwarded with its guaranteed bandwidth.

Congestion avoidance is used within each class to prevent congestion

within the class.

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 Per-Hop Behaviors

A DiffServ node must allocate a configurable, minimum amount of

forwarding resources (buffer space and bandwidth) per AF class.

Excess resources may be allocated between non-idle classes.

The manner must be specified.

Reordering of IP packets of the same flow is not allowed if they

belong to the same AF class.

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 Backward Compatibility Using the Class Selector

Class-Selector xxx000 DSCP

Compatibility with current IP precedence usage (RFC 1812) = maps

IP precedence to DSCP

Differentiates probability of timely forwarding

(xyz000) >= (abc000) if xyz > abc
- If a packet has DSCP = 011000, it has a greater probability of
timely forwarding than a packet with DSCP = 001000.

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