Traditional Nonconverged Network

Traditional data traffic characteristics:

Network engineering focused on connectivity
Bursty data flow
FIFO access
Not overly time-sensitive; delays OK
Brief outages are survivable
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Converged Network Realities

Converged network realities:

Constant small-packet voice flow competes with
bursty data flow.

Critical traffic must have priority.

Voice and video are time-sensitive.
Brief outages are not acceptable.
Must provide secure, predictable, measurable,
and, sometimes, guaranteed services
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Converged Network 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; this travel
adds up to the overall delay.
Variation of delay (jitter): Sometimes there is a lot of
other traffic, which results in varied and increased
delay.
Packet loss: Packets may have to be dropped when a
link is congested.

Measuring Available Bandwidth

The maximum available bandwidth is the bandwidth of the slowest

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

A lack in bandwidth can have performance impacts on network

applications.
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Increasing Available Bandwidth

Upgrade the link (the best but also the most expensive solution).
Improve QoS with advanced queuing mechanisms to forward the important
packets first.
Compress the payload of Layer 2 frames (takes time).
Compress IP packet headers.

Using Available Bandwidth Efficiently

Voice

LLQ
RTP header
compression

(Highest)

Data

(High)

Data
(Medium)

Data

Voice

Data
CBWFQ
TCP header
compression

(Low)

Using advanced queuing and header

compression mechanisms, the available bandwidth
can be used more efficiently:
Voice: LLQ and RTP header compression
Interactive traffic: CBWFQ and TCP header compression
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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 the packet, and put the packet into the output queue of the
output interface (CPU speed and use, IP switching mode, router architecture)
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 for the packet to cross the link from one end
to the other.

The Impact of Delay and Jitter on Quality

End-to-end delay: The sum of all propagation, processing, serialization, and

queuing delays in the path
Jitter: The variation in the delay.
In best-effort networks, propagation and serialization delays are fixed,
while processing and queuing delays are unpredictable.
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Ways to Reduce Delay

Upgrade the link (the best solution but also the most expensive).

Forward the important packets first.

Enable reprioritization of important packets.

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

Compress IP packet headers.

Reducing Delay in a Network

Customer routers perform:

TCP/RTP header compression
LLQ
Prioritization

ISP routers perform:

Reprioritization according to the QoS policy
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The Impacts of Packet Loss

Telephone call: I cannot understand you. Your voice is breaking up.

Teleconferencing: The picture is very jerky. Voice is not synchronized.

Publishing company: This file is corrupted.

Call center: Please hold while my screen refreshes.
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Types of Packet Drops

Tail drops occur when the output queue is full. Tail drops are
common and happen when a link is congested.
Other types of drops, usually resulting from router congestion,
include input drop (CPU busy), ignore (out of buffer space),
overrun (CPU busy) , and frame errors (CRC, runt, giants).
These errors can often be solved with hardware upgrades.
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Ways to Prevent Packet Loss

Upgrade the link (the best solution but also the most expensive).
Guarantee enough bandwidth for sensitive packets.
Prevent congestion by randomly dropping less important packets
before congestion occurs.
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Traffic Rate

Policing

Traffic

Traffic

Traffic Policing and Traffic Shaping

Time

Traffic Rate

Time

Traffic Rate

Shaping

Time

Traffic

Traffic

Traffic policing propagates bursts. When the traffic rate reaches

the configured maximum rate, excess traffic is dropped
Traffic Rate

Time

traffic shaping retains excess packets in a queue and then schedules

the excess for later transmission over increments of time
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Reducing Packet Loss in a Network

Problem: Interface congestion causes TCP and voice packet

drops, resulting in slowing FTP traffic and jerky speech quality.
Conclusion: Congestion avoidance and queuing can help.

Solution: Use WRED (Weighted Random Early Detection) and

LLQ.
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Objectives
Describe the need for QoS as it relates to
various types of network traffic.
Identify QoS mechanisms.
Describe the steps used to implement QoS.

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What Is Quality of Service?

Two Perspectives
The user perspective
Users perceive that their applications
are performing properly
Voice, video, and data

The network manager perspective

Need to manage bandwidth
allocations to deliver the desired
application performance
Control delay, jitter, and
packet loss
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Different Types of Traffic Have Different

Needs
Real-time applications
especially sensitive to QoS

Sensitivity to
QoS Metrics

Application
Examples
Delay

Jitter

Packet
Loss

Interactive Voice
and Video

Streaming Video

Transactional/
Interactive

Bulk Data
Email
File Transfer

Interactive voice

Videoconferencing

Causes of degraded
performance
Congestion losses
Variable queuing delays

The QoS challenge

Manage bandwidth allocations
to deliver the desired
application performance
Control delay, jitter, and packet
loss

Need to manage
bandwidth allocations
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IOS QoS Tools

Congestion management:
PQ
CQ
WFQ
CBWFQ

Queue management
WRED

Link efficiency

QoS Toolbox

Link fragmentation and interleave

RTP and CRTP

Traffic shaping and traffic policing

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Priority Queuing

PQ puts data into four levels of queues: high, medium, normal, and low.
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Custom Queuing

CQ handles traffic by assigning a specified amount of queue space to

each class of packet and then servicing up to 17 queues in a roundrobin fashion.

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Weighted Fair Queuing

WFQ makes the transfer rates and interarrival periods of

active high-volume conversations much more predictable.

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Weighted Random Early Detection

WRED provides a method that stochastically discards

packets if congestion begins to increase.

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24

Implementing QoS
Step 1: Identify types of
traffic and their
requirements.

Step 2: Divide traffic into

classes.

Step 3: Define QoS policies

for each class.
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Step 1: Identify Types of Traffic and Their

Requirements
Network audit: Identify traffic on the network.

Business audit: Determine how important each type

of traffic is for business.
Service levels required: Determine required response
time.

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Step 2: Define Traffic Classes

Scavenger
Class

Less than Best

Effort

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Step 3: Define QoS Policy

A QoS policy is a
network-wide definition of
the specific levels of QoS
that are assigned to
different classes of
network traffic.
* Setting a
minimum/maximun
bandwidth guarantee
* Assigning priorities to
each class
* Using QoS technologies,
such as advanced queuing, to
manage congestion
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Quality of Service Operations

How Do QoS Tools Work?

Classification
and Marking

Queuing and
(Selective) Dropping

Post-Queuing
Operations

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Three QoS Models

Model

Characteristics

Best effort

No QoS is applied to packets. If it is not

important when or how packets arrive,
the best-effort model is appropriate.

Integrated
Services

A signaling protocol is required to tell

the routers which flows of packets requires
special QoS treatment

(IntServ)
Differentiated
Services

(DiffServ)

The network recognizes classes that

require QoS. A packet's "class" can be
marked directly in the packet
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Best-Effort Model
Internet was initially based on a best-effort packet delivery
service.
Best-effort is the default mode for all traffic.

There is no differentiation among types of traffic.

Best-effort model is similar to using standard mailThe
mail will arrive when the mail arrives.
Benefits:
Highly scalable
No special mechanisms required

Drawbacks:
No service guarantees
No service differentiation or preferential treatment
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Integrated Services (IntServ) Model Operation

Ensures guaranteed delivery and
predictable behavior of the
network for applications.
Provides multiple service levels.
RSVP is a signaling protocol to
reserve resources for specified
QoS parameters.
The requested QoS parameters are
then linked to a packet stream.
Streams are not established if
the required QoS parameters
cannot be met.
Intelligent queuing mechanisms
needed to provide resource
reservation in terms of:
Guaranteed rate
Controlled load (low delay, high
throughput)

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Benefits and Drawbacks of the 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

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Resource Reservation Protocol (RSVP)

Is carried in IPprotocol ID
46
Can use both TCP and UDP
port 3455
Is a signaling protocol and
works with existing routing
protocols
Requests QoS parameters
from all devices between
the source and destination

Sending Host

RSVP
Tunnel

RSVP Receivers

Provides divergent performance requirements for multimedia applications:

Rate-sensitive traffic
Delay-sensitive traffic

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RSVP Daemon
Policy
Control

Admission
Control

RSVP
Daemon

Reservation

Routing

Data

Packet
Classifier

Packet
Scheduler
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RSVP in Action

RSVP sets up a path through the network with the requested QoS.
RSVP is used for CAC in Cisco Unified CallManager 5.0.
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The Differentiated Services Model

Overcomes many of the limitations best-effort and IntServ models
Uses the soft QoS provisioned-QoS model rather than the hard QoS
signaled-QoS model
Classifies flows into aggregates (classes) and provides appropriate
QoS for the classes
Minimizes signaling and state maintenance requirements on each
network node
Manages QoS characteristics on the basis of per-hop behavior (PHB)
You choose the level of service for each traffic class
Edge

End Station

Edge
Interior

Edge

DiffServ Domain

End Station

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Cisco AutoQoS

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Cisco AutoQoS Features in a WAN

Feature
Autodetermination of
WAN Settings
Autoclassification of
VoIP Settings

Benefit
Eliminates the need to know QoS theory and design
in common deployment scenarios
Automatically classifies RTP payload and VoIP
control packets (H.323, H.225 unicast, Skinny, SIP),
and MGCP

Initial Policy
Generation
VoIP LLQ
Provisioning
WAN Traffic Shaping
Link Efficiency

Reduces the time needed to establish an initial,

feasible QoS policy solution
Provisions LLQ for the VoIP bearer and bandwidth
guarantees for control traffic
Enables WAN traffic shaping (FRTS, CIR and burst)
Enables link efficiency mechanisms (LFI and cRTP)
as appropriate
Provides SNMP and syslog alerts for VoIP packet
drops

Management

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Cisco AutoQoS Features in a LAN

Feature

Benefit

Simplified
Configuration

One-command voice configuration does not affect other network

traffic. Can be fine tuned.

Queue
Configuration

Configures queue admission criteria, Cisco Catalyst strict-priority

queuing with WRR scheduling, modifies queue sizes and
weights.

Automated &
Secure

Detects Cisco IP Phones and enables AutoQoS settings.

Protects against malicious activity during Cisco IP phone
relocations and moves.

Optimal VoIP
Performance

Leverages decades of networking experience and uses all

advanced QoS capabilities of the Cisco Catalyst switches.

End-to-End
Interoperability

Works with AutoQoS settings on all other Cisco switches and

routers.

Trust Boundary
Enforcement

Enforces the trust boundary on Cisco Catalyst switch access

ports, uplinks, and downlinks

NBAR Support

Enables NBAR for different traffic types

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