QoS BEST-PRACTICES

AT–A–GLANCE

A successful QoS deployment includes three key phases: Classify, mark, and police as close to the traffic-sources as
1) Strategically defining the business objectives to be Video possible; following Differentiated-Services standards, such
achieved via QoS • Unpredictable Flows as RFC 2474, 2475, 2597, 2698 and 3246.
• Drop + Delay Sensitive Provision queuing in a consistent manner (according to
2) Analyzing the service-level requirements of the traffic
• UDP Priority hardware capabilities).
classes
• 150 ms One-Way Delay
3) Designing and testing QoS policies • 30 ms Jitter
• 1% Loss
1) STRATEGICALLY DEFINING THE BUSINESS • Overprovision Stream
by 20% to Account for Voice
OBJECTIVES TO BE ACHIEVED BY QOS Best
Business QoS objectives need to be defined: Headers + Bursts Effort

• Is the objective to enable VoIP only or is video also

required?
Best Effort Real-time
• If so, is video-conferencing or streaming video required? 25% 33%
Or both? Data
Scavenger Interactive-
• Are there applications that are considered mission-critical? • No “One-Size Fits All” Video
If so, what are they? • Smooth/Bursty Bulk
• Does the organization wish to squelch certain types of • Benign/Greedy Critical
traffic? If so, what are they? Data
• TCP Retransmits/
• Does the business want to use QoS tools to mitigate UDP Does Not Streaming-
Routing
Video
DoS/worm attacks?
Call-
• How many classes of service are needed to meet the business Net Signaling
objectives? Mgmt Mission-
Critical
Because QoS introduces a system of managed unfairness,
most QoS deployments inevitably entail political repercus- 3) DESIGN AND TEST THE QoS POLICIES
sions when implemented. To minimize the effects of non-
Transactional
technical obstacles to deployment, address political/organi- L3 Classification
zational issues as early as possible, garnishing executive Application PHB DSCP Thoroughly test QoS policies prior to production-network
endorsement whenever possible. deployment.
Routing CS6 48
A successful QoS policy rollout is followed by ongoing
2) ANALYZE THE APPLICATION SERVICE-LEVEL Voice EF 46 monitoring of service levels and periodic adjustments and
REQUIREMENTS tuning of QoS policies.
Interactive-Video AF41 34
CS4 32 As business conditions change, the organization will need to
Streaming Video
Voice adapt to these changes and may be required to begin the QoS
Mission-Critical AF31 26 deployment cycle anew, by redefining their objectives, tuning
• Predictable Flows
Call-Signaling CS3 24 and testing corresponding designs, rolling these new designs
• Drop + Delay Sensitive
out and monitoring them to see if they match the redefined
• UDP Priority Transactional Data AF21 18 objectives.
• 150 ms One-Way Delay
• 30 ms Jitter Network Mgmt CS2 16 Copyright © 2005 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. Cisco, Cisco IOS, Cisco
• 1% Loss Bulk Data AF11 10 Systems, and the Cisco Systems logo are registered trademarks of Cisco Systems, Inc.
and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and certain other countries.
• 17 kbps-106 kbps VoIP
+ Call-Signaling Scavenger CS1 8 All other trademarks mentioned in this document or Web site are the property of their
respective owners. The use of the word partner does not imply a partnership relationship
Best Effort 0 0 between Cisco and any other company. (0502R) 204170.m_ETMG_AE_4.05