LAB 11

Queuing Disciplines
Order of Packet Transmission and Dropping

OBJECTIVES
The objective of this lab is to examine the effect of various queuing disciplines on packet
delivery and delay for different services.

OVERVIEW
As part of the resource allocation mechanisms, each router must implement some queuing
discipline that governs how packets are buffered while waiting to be transmitted. Various
queuing disciplines can be used to control which packets get transmitted (bandwidth
allocation) and which packets get dropped (limited buffer space). The queuing discipline
also affects the latency experienced by a packet, by determining how long a packet waits to 109
be transmitted. Examples of the common queuing disciplines are first-in/first-out (FIFO)
queuing, priority queuing (PQ), and weighted-fair queuing (WFQ).
The idea of FIFO queuing is that the first packet that arrives at a router is the first packet to be
transmitted. Given that the amount of buffer space at each router is finite, if a packet arrives
and the queue (buffer space) is full, then the router discards (drops) that packet. This is done
without regard to which flow the packet belongs to or how important the packet is.
PQ is a simple variation of the basic FIFO queuing. The idea is to mark each packet with a
priority; the mark could be carried, for example, in the IP Type of Service (ToS) field. The
routers then implement multiple FIFO queues, one for each priority class. Within each prior-
ity, packets are still managed in a FIFO manner. This queuing discipline allows high-priority
packets to cut to the front of the line.
The idea of the fair queuing (FQ) discipline is to maintain a separate queue for each flow
currently being handled by the router. The router then services these queues in a round-robin
manner. WFQ allows a weight to be assigned to each flow (queue). This weight effectively
controls the percentage allocated to each flow from the link's bandwidth. We could use ToS
bits in the IP header to identify that weight.
In this lab, you will set up a network that carries three applications: File Transfer Protocol
(FTP), video, and Voice over IP (VoIP). You will study how the choice of the queuing
discipline in the routers can affect performance of the applications and utilization of the
network resources.

PRE-LAB ACTIVITIES
& Read Section 6.2 from Computer Networks: A Systems Approach, 5th Edition.
 Network Simulation Experiments Manual

: Go to www.net-seal.net and play the following animations:

Switch Congestion

IP Fragmentation

PROCEDURE
Create a New Project
1. Start OPNET IT Guru Academic Edition Choose New from the File menu.
2. Select Project and click OK Name the project <your initials>_Queues, and the sce-
nario FIFO Click OK.
3. In the Startup Wizard: Initial Topology dialog box, make sure that Create Empty Scenario
is selected Click Next Select Campus from the Network Scale list Click Next three
times Click OK.

Create and Configure the Network

The QoS Attribute Initialize the network:
Config node defines
attribute configuration
details for protocols
supported at the IP
layer. These specifica-
tions can be referenced
by the individual nodes
using symbolic names. It
defines different queuing
profiles such as FIFO,
110 WFQ, priority queuing,
custom queuing, MWRR,
MDRR, and DWRR.

1. The Object Palette dialog box should be now on the top of your project space. If it is not
there, open it by clicking . Make sure that the internet_toolbox item is selected from
the pull-down menu on the object palette.
2. Add to the project workspace the following objects from the palette: Application Config,
Profile Config, QoS Attribute Config, five ethernet_wkstn, one ethernet_server, and
two ethernet4_slip8_gtwy routers.
3. Connect both routers together with a bidirectional PPP_DS1 link.
4. Connect the workstations and the server to the routers using bidirectional 10Base_T
links, as shown.
5. Rename the objects you added as shown, and Save your project.
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Queuing Disciplines

Configure the applications:

1. Right-click on the Applications node Edit Attributes Expand the Application
Definitions hierarchy Set rows to 3 Name the rows: FTP Application, Video
Application, and VoIP Application.
a. Go to the FTP Application row Expand the Description hierarchy Assign High Type of Service (ToS)
Load to Ftp Click on the High Load value and choose Edit from the drop-down is assigned to the IP
menu Assign Constant(10) to Inter-Request Time Assign Constant(1000000) to packets. It represents
File Size. Keep the Type of Service (ToS) as Best Effort (0). a session attribute that
allows packets to be pro-
vided for the appropriate
service in the IP queues.
Best-effort delivery
means that delivery of a
packet is attempted but
is not guaranteed.

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b. Go to the Video Application row Expand the Description hierarchy Assign Low
Resolution Video to Video Conferencing Click on the Low Resolution Video
value and choose Edit Edit the value of the Type of Service field (the Configure
TOS/DSCP window appears) From the drop-down menu, assign Streaming
PCM (Pulse Code
Multimedia (4) to ToS Click OK twice.
Modulation) is a
c. Go to the VoIP Application row Expand the Description hierarchy Assign procedure used to
PCM Quality Speech to Voice. If you edit it, you can see that the ToS assigned to it is digitize speech before
Interactive Voice (6). transmitting it over the
2. Click OK, and then Save your project. network.
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Configure the profiles:

1. Right-click on the Profiles node Edit Attributes Expand the Profile Configuration
hierarchy Set rows to 3.
2. Name and set the attributes of row 0 as shown:

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3. Name and set the attributes of row 1 as shown:

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Queuing Disciplines

4. Name and set the attributes of row 2 as shown:

5. Click OK, and then Save your project.

Configure the queues: 113
We will keep the default queuing profiles that are defined in our Queues object. It is recom-
mended that you check out the configuration of the FIFO, PQ, and WFQ profiles.
Configure the workstations and servers:
1. Right-click on the FTP Client Edit Attributes Expand the Application: Supported
Profiles hierarchy Set rows to 1 Set Profile Name to FTP Profile Click OK.
2. Right-click on the Video Client Edit Attributes Expand the Application:
Supported Profiles hierarchy Set rows to 1 Set Profile Name to Video Profile
Click OK.
3. Right-click on the VoIP West Edit Attributes.
a. Expand the Application: Supported Profiles hierarchy Set rows to 1 Set Profile
Name to VoIP Profile.
b. Edit the Application: Supported Services value Set rows to 1 Set Service Name
to VoIP Application Click OK twice.
4. Right-click on the VoIP East Edit Attributes.
a. Expand the Application: Supported Profiles hierarchy Set rows to 1 Set Profile
Name to VoIP Profile.
b. Edit the Application: Supported Services value Set rows to 1 Set Service Name
to VoIP Application Click OK twice.
5. Right-click on the FTP Server Edit Attributes Edit the Application: Supported
Services value Set rows to 1 Set Service Name to FTP Application Click OK
twice.
6. Right-click on the Video Server Edit Attributes Edit the Application: Supported
Services value Set rows to 1 Set Service Name to Video Application Click OK
twice.
7. Save your project.
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Configure the routers:

1. Click on the link connecting the East and West routers to select it From the Protocols
menu choose IP QoS Configure QoS.
2. Make sure the selected items are as shown in the following QoS Configuration dialog box
Click OK.

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Note: Because the Visualize QoS Configuration radio button is checked, the link is colored
based on the QoS scheme used (blue for FIFO).
3. Save your project.

Choose the Statistics

To test the performance of the applications defined in the network, we will collect some of
the available statistics as follows:
1. Right-click anywhere in the project workspace, and select Choose Individual Statistics
from the pop-up menu.
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Queuing Disciplines

2. In the Choose Results dialog box, select the following global statistics: Traffic Dropped: The
number of IP datagrams
dropped by all nodes in
the network across all IP
interfaces. The reasons
for dropping an IP data-
gram can be any one of
the following:
Insufficient space in the
queue.
Maximum number of
hops exceeded by an IP
datagram.
On nonrouting nodes, a
local router interface was
not found to be used as
the next hop.
On routing nodes, the
route table lookup failed
to yield a route to the
destination.

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3. Click OK, and Save your project.

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Configure the Simulation

Here we need to configure the duration of the simulation:
1. Click on and the Configure Simulation window should appear.
2. Set the duration to 150 seconds.
3. Click OK.

Duplicate the Scenario

In the network we just created, we used the FIFO queuing discipline in the routers. To ana-
lyze the effect of different queuing disciplines, we will create two more scenarios to test the
PQ and WFQ disciplines.
1. Select Duplicate Scenario from the Scenarios menu and give it the name PQ
Click OK.
2. Click on the link connecting the East and West routers to select it From the Protocols
menu choose IP QoS Configure QoS.
3. Make sure the selected items are as shown in the following QoS Configuration dialog
box Click OK.

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Queuing Disciplines

Note: Because the Visualize QoS Configuration radio button is checked, the link is colored
based on the QoS scheme used (orange for priority queuing).
4. Save your project.
5. Select Duplicate Scenario from the Scenarios menu and give it the name WFQ
Click OK.

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6. Click on the link connecting the East and West routers to select it From the Protocols
menu choose IP QoS Configure QoS.
7. Make sure the selected items are as shown in the following QoS Configuration dialog
box Click OK.
Note: Because the Visualize QoS Configuration radio button is checked, the link is
colored based on the QoS scheme used (green for WFQ).
8. Save your project.
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Run the Simulation

To run the simulation for the three scenarios simultaneously:
1. Go to the Scenarios menu Select Manage Scenarios.
2. Change the values under the Results column to <collect> (or <recollect>) for the three
scenarios. Compare with the following figure.

3. Click OK to run the three simulations. Depending on the speed of your processor, this
task may take several minutes to complete.
4. After the simulation completes the three runs, one for each scenario, click Close.
5. Save your project.

View the Results

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Do the following to view and analyze the results. (Note: Actual results will vary slightly based
on the actual node positioning in the project.)
1. Select Compare Results from the Results menu.
2. Select the IP.Traffic Dropped statistic and click Show. The resulting graph should resem-
ble the one that follows.
Note: The following graph is zoomed into the region of interest on the original graph.
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Queuing Disciplines

3. Create the graph for Video Conferencing.Traffic Received:

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4. Create the graph for Voice.Traffic Received:
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5. Create graphs for Voice.Packet End-to-End Delay and Voice.Packet Delay Variation
as follows. (Note: The trace for WFQ is not shown on the following graphs because it is
overlapped by the trace of PQ.)

120 FURTHER READING

The Differentiated Services Field: IETF RFC number 2474 (www.ietf.org/rfc.html).

EXERCISES
1. Analyze the graphs we obtained and verify the overlap of the Voice.Packet End-to-End
Delay and Voice.Packet Delay Variation graphs. Compare the three queuing disciplines
and explain their effect on the performance of the three applications.
2. In the implemented project, edit the Queues object and check the profiles assigned to the
FIFO, PQ, and WFQ disciplines. For each profile, answer the following questions:
a. How many queues are associated with each discipline?
b. In this lab, we used ToS to identify the priority and weight for the PQ and WFQ dis-
ciplines, respectively. What are the other parameters that can be used to identify the
priority and weight?
c. In PQ, how are queues configured to serve different ToS values?
d. In WFQ, how are queues configured to serve different ToS values?
3. For all scenarios, choose the queuing delay <-- statistic for the link that connects East
Router and West Router. Rerun the simulation and generate the graph that compares that
queuing delay for all queuing disciplines (scenarios). Analyze this graph.
Hint: The queuing delay <-- statistic is under the point-to-point hierarchy.

LAB REPORT
Prepare a report that follows the guidelines explained in the Introduction Lab. The report
should include the answers to the preceding exercises as well as the graphs you generated
from the simulation scenarios. Discuss the results you obtained, and compare these results
with your expectations. Mention any anomalies or unexplained behaviors.