IP QoS Principles

Theory and Practice

Dimitrios Kalogeras
 Agenda

 Introduction – History – Background

 QoS Metrics
 QoS Architecture
 QoS Architecture Components
 Applications in Cisco Routers

2
 A Bit of History

 The Internet, originally designed for U. S. government

use, offered only one service level: Best Effort.
– No guarantees of transit time or delivery
– Rudimentary prioritization was available, but it was rarely used.
 Commercialization began in early 1990’s
– Private (intranet) networks using Internet technology appeared.
– Commercial users began paying directly for Internet use.
– Commerce sites tried to attract customers by using graphics.
– Industry used the Internet and intranets for internal, shared
communications that combined previously-separate, specialized
networks -- each with its own specific technical requirements.
– New technologies (voice over the Internet, etc.) appeared,
designed to capitalize on inexpensive Internet technologies.
The Demands on Modern Networks
 Network flexibility is becoming central to enterprise
strategy
– Rapidly-changing business functions no longer carried out in
stable ways, in unchanging locations, or for long time-periods
– Network-enabled applications often crucial for meeting new
market opportunities, but there’s no time to custom-build a
network
 Traffic is bursty
 Interactive voice, video applications have stringent
bandwidth and latency demands
 Multiple application networks are being combined into
consolidated corporate utility networks
– Bandwidth contention as critical transaction traffic is squeezed by
web browsing, file transfers, or other low-priority or bulk traffic
– Latency problems as interactive voice and video are squeezed by
transaction, web browsing, file transfer, and bulk traffic
 QoS Background
QoS development inspired by new types of applications
in IP environment:
 Video Streaming Services
 Video Conferencing
 VoIP
 Legacy SNA / DLSw

5
Definitions

 Quality of Service (QoS) classifies network traffic and

then ensures that some of it receives special handling.
– May track each individual dataflow (sender:receiver) separately.
– May include attempts to provide better error rates, lower
network transit time (latency), and decreased latency variation
(jitter).
 Differentiated Class of Service (CoS) is a simpler
alternative to QoS.
– Doesn't try to distinguish among individual dataflows; instead,
uses simpler methods to classify packets into one of a few
categories.
– All packets within a particular category are then handled in the
same way, with the same quality parameters.
 Policy-Based Networking provides end-to-end control.
– The rules for access and for management of network resources
are stored as policies and are managed by a policy server.
 Statistical Behavior: Random
Arrival
 In random arrival, the time that each packet arrives is
completely independent of the time that any other packet
arrives.
– If the true situation is that arrivals tend to be evenly spaced, then
random arrival calculations will overestimate the queuing delay.
– If the true situation is that arrivals are bunched in groups (typical
of data flows, such as packets and acknowledgements), then
random arrival calculations will underestimate the queuing delay.
 Our intuition is usually misleading when we think of
random processes.
– We tend to assume that queue size increases linearly as the
number of customers increases.
– But, with random arrival, there is a drastic increase in queue size
as the customer arrival rate approaches 80% of the theoretical
server capacity. There’s no way to store the capacity that is
unused by late customers, but early customers increase the
queue.
Random Arrival and Intuition

 The surprising increase in queue length is best

shown by a graph:
Queue Length

Actual

Intuitive

20% 40% 60% 80%

System Capacity
 Random Arrival vs. Self-Similar

 Although random arrival is very convenient

mathematically (it’s relatively simple to do random arrival
calculations), it has been shown that much data traffic is
self-similar.
– Ethernet and Internet traffic flows, in particular, are self-similar.
– The rate of initial connections is still random, however.
 Self-similar traffic shows the same pattern regardless of
changes in scale.
– Fractal geometry (e.g., a coastline) is an example.
 Self-similar traffic has a heavy tail.
– The probabilities of extremely large values (e.g., file lengths of a
gigabyte or more) don’t decrease as rapidly, as they would with
random distributions of file lengths.
– This matches real data traffic behaviours.
 Long file downloads mixed with short acknowledgements
 Compressed video with action scenes mixed with static scenes
 Implications of Self-Similar Behaviour
 “If high levels of utilization are required, drastically larger
buffers are needed for self-similar traffic than would be
predicted based on classical queuing analysis [i.e.,
assuming random behaviour].” [Stallings]
– Combining self-similar traffic streams doesn’t quickly result in
smoother traffic patterns; it’s only at the highest levels of
aggregation that random-arrival statistics can be used.
Queue Length

Self-similar

Random arrival

20% 40% 60% 80%

10 System Capacity
QoS Metrics: What are we trying to control?
Four metrics are used to describe a packet’s
transmission through a network – Bandwidth,
Delay, Jitter, and Loss
Using a pipe analogy, then for each packet:
 Bandwidth is the perceived width of the pipe
 Delay is the perceived length of the pipe
 Jitter is the perceived variation in the length of the pipe
 Loss is the perceived leakiness if the pipe
Bandwidth

A The path as perceived by a packet! B

Delay
11
 QoS Metrics – Bandwidth
The amount of bandwidth available to a packet is
affected by:
 The slowest link found in the transmission path
 The amount of congestion experienced at each hop – TCP
slow-start and windowing
 The forwarding speed of the devices in the path
 The queuing priority given to the packet flow

100 Mb/s 2Mb/s 10 Mb/s

2 Mb/s Maximum Bandwidth

12
 QoS Metrics – Delay
The amount of delay experienced by a packet is the
sum of the:
 Fixed Propagation Delays
Bounded by the speed of light and the path distance
 Fixed Serialization Delays
The time required to physically place a packet onto a transmission
medium
 Variable Switching Delays
The time required by each forwarding engine to resolve the next-hop
address and egress interface for a packet
 Variable Queuing Delays
The time required by each switching engine to queue a packet for
transmission

13
 QoS Metrics – Jitter

The amount of Jitter experienced by a packet is

affected by:
~214ms Serialization
 Serialization delays on low-speed interfaces Delay for a 1500-byte
 Variations in queue-depth due to congestion packet at 56Kb/s

 Variations in queue cycle-times induced by the service architectures –

First-Come, First-Served, for example

60B every 20ms 60B every 214ms 60B every 214ms

Voice 1500 Bytes of Data Voice Voice 1500 Bytes of Data Voice Voice 1500 Bytes of Data Voice

10 Mbps Ethernet 10 Mbps Ethernet

56 Kbps WAN

14
 QoS Metrics – Loss
The amount of loss experienced by a packet flow is
affected by:
 Buffer exhaustion due to congestion caused by
oversubscription or rate-decoupling
 Intentional packet drops due to congestion control
mechanism such as Random Early Discard

GE DS-3
GE
GE

Oversubscribed
Buffer Exhaustion

15
 QoS Architecture Models

 Best Effort Service

 Integrated Service
 Differentiated Service

16
 QoS Implementation Models

No State Aggregated State Per-Flow State

1. Best Effort
2. IntServ/RSVP

3. DiffServ

4. RSVP+DiffServ+MPLS

17
 Best Effort Service

What exactly IP does:

 All packets treated equally
 Unpredictable bandwidth
 Unpredictable delay and jitter

18
 IntServ (RFC1633)

19
 Integrated Services (IntServ)
 The Integrated Services (IntServ) model builds upon Resource
Reservation Protocol (RSVP)
 Reservations are made per simplex flow
 Applications request reservations for network resources which
are granted or denied based on resource availability
 Senders specify the resource requirements via a PATH
message that is routed to the receiver
 Receivers reserve the resources with a RESV message that
follows the reverse path

RESV
Sender Receiver
PATH

20
 IntServ – Components

The Integrated Services Model can be divided into two

parts – the Control and Data Planes

Control Plane
Routing Selection Admission Control

Reservation Setup

Reservation Table

Data Plane
Flow Identification Packet Scheduler

21
 IntServ – Components

Control Plane
 Route Selection – Identifies the route to follow for the reservation
(typically provided by the IGP processes)
 Reservation Setup – Installs the reservation state along the selected
path
 Admission Control – Ensures that resources are available before
allowing a reservation
Data Plane
 Flow Identification – Identifies the packets that belong to a given
reservation (using the packet’s 5-Tuple)
 Packet Scheduling – Enforces the reservations by queuing and
scheduling packets for transmission

22
 IntServ – Service Models

Applications using IntServ can request two basic service-

types:
 Guaranteed Service
Provides guaranteed bandwidth and queuing delays end-to-end, similar to a
virtual-circuit
Applications can expect hard-bounded bandwidth and delay
 Controlled-Load Service
Provides a Better-than-Best-Effort service, similar to a lightly-loaded network of
the required bandwidth
Applications can expect little to zero packet loss, and little to zero queuing delay
These services are mapped into policies that are applied via CB-WFQ,
LLQ, or MDRR

23
 IntServ – Scaling Issues

 IntServ routers need to examine every packet to

identify and classify the microflows using the 5-
tuple
 IntServ routers must maintain a token-bucket per
microflow
 Guaranteed Service requires the creation of a
queue for each microflow
 Data structures must be created and maintained
for each reservation

24
 DiffServ (RFC2474/2475)

25
 Differentiated Services (DiffServ)

 The DiffServ Model specifies an approach that offers a

service better than Best-Effort and more scalable than
IntServ
 Traffic is classified into one of five forwarding classes at the
edge of a DiffServ network
 Forwarding classes are encoded in the Differentiated
Services Codepoint (DSCP) field of each packet’s IP header
 DiffServ routers apply pre-provisioned Per-Hop Behaviors
(PHBs) to packets according to the encoded forwarding
class

5 4 3 2 1 5 4 3 2 1

26
 DiffServ – Compared to IntServ

 DiffServ allocates resources to aggregated rather than to

individual flows
 DiffServ moves the classification, policing, and marking
functions to the boundary nodes – the core simply forwards
based on aggregate class
 DiffServ defines Per-Hop forwarding behaviors, not end-to-
end services
 DiffServ guarantees are based on provisioning, not
reservations
 The DiffServ focus is on individual domains, rather than end-
to-end deployments

27
 DiffSrv – The DS Field (RFC 2474)

DS field DSCP CU

 The DS field is composed of the 6 high-order bits of the

IP ToS field
 The DS field is functionally similar to the IPv4 TOS and
IPv6 Traffic Class fields
 The DS field is divided into three pools:
 nnnnn0 – Standards Use
 nnnn11 – Experimental / Local Use
 nnnn01 – Experimental / Local Use, possible Standards Use
 Class Selector Codepoints occupy the high-order bits
(nnn000) and map to the IPv4 Precedence bits

28
 DiffSrv – Forwarding Classes
DSCP Codepoint
000000 CS0 (DE)
The DS Field can encode: 001000 CS1
001010 AF11
 Eight Class Selector Codepoints compatible 001100 AF12

with legacy systems (CS0-7) 001110 AF13

010000 CS2
 An Expedited Forwarding (EF) Class 010010 AF21

 Four Assured Forwarding Classes, each with 010100

010110
AF22
AF23
three Drop Precedence (AFxy, where x=1-4, and 011000 CS3

y=1-3) 011010 AF31

011100 AF32
 Packets in a higher AF Classes have a higher 011110 AF33
transmit priority 100000 CS4
 Packets with a higher Drop Precedence are 100010 AF41

more likely to be dropped 100100 AF42

100110 AF43
101000 CS5
101110 EF
110000 CS6
111000 CS7

29
 DiffServ – Per-Hop Behaviours

 A Per-Hop Behaviour (PHB) is an observable forwarding

behaviour of a DS node applied to all packets with the same
DSCP
 PHBs do NOT mandate any specific implementation
mechanisms
 The EF PHB should provide a low-loss, low-delay, low-jitter,
assured bandwidth service
 The AF PHBs should provide increasing levels or service
(higher bandwidth) for increasing AF levels
 The Default PHB (CS0) should be equivalent to Best-Effort
Service
 Packets within a given PHB should not be re-ordered

30
 DiffServ – Boundary Nodes

DiffServ Boundary Nodes are responsible for classifying and

conditioning packets as they enter a given DiffServ Domain
Conditioning
Classification Remarker

Classifier Marker Meter Shaper

Dropper

 Classifier Examine each packet and assign a Forwarding Class

 Marker Set the DS Field to match the Forwarding Class
 Meter Measure the traffic flow and compare it to the traffic profile
 Remarker Remark (lower) the DS Field for out-of-profile traffic
 Shaper Shape the traffic to match the traffic profile
 Dropper Drop out of profile traffic
31
 DiffServ – Summary

DiffServ Domain

Classification / Conditioning
PHB
LLQ/WRED
Premium Gold Silver Bronze

32
 The Trouble with DiffServ

 As currently formulated, DiffServ is strong on

simplicity and weak on guarantees
 Virtual wire using EF is OK, but how much can be
deployed?
 DiffServ has no topology-aware admission control
mechanism

33
 RSVP-DiffServ Integration

The best of both worlds – Aggregated RSVP integrated with

DiffServ

Aggregated
No State State Per-Flow State
RSVP + DiffServ
Best Effort DiffServ IntServ
Aggregated State
Firm Guarantees
Admission Control

But – given the presence of a DiffServ

domain in a network, how do we support
RSVP End-to-End?
34
 RSVP-DiffServ Integration – How?

 Routers at edge of a DS cloud perform microflow

classification, policing, and marking
• Guaranteed Load set to the EF, Controlled load set to AFx, and Best
Effort set to CS0
• Service Model to Forwarding Class mapping is arbitrary
 RSVP signaling is used in both the IntServ and DiffServ
regions for admission control
 The DiffServ core makes and manages aggregate
reservations for the DS Forwarding Classes based on the
RSVP microflow reservations
 The core then schedules and forwards packets based only
on the DS Field

35
 RSVP-DiffServ Integration
Border Routers implement per-flow
classification, policing, and marking The DiffServ region
aggregates the flows into
DS Forwarding Classes

DiffServ Region

RSVP Signaling is propagated

End-to End

The IntServ regions contain

Guaranteed or Controlled
Load Microflows
36
RSVP-DiffServ Integration – Summary

 The forwarding plane is still DiffServ

 We now make a small number of aggregated
reservations from ingress to egress
 Microflow RSVP messages are carried across the
DiffServ cloud
 Aggregate reservations are dynamically adjusted to
cover all microflows
 RSVP flow-classifiers and per-flow queues are
eliminated in the core
 Scalability is improved – only the RSVP flow states are
necessary – Tested to 10K flows

37
 QoS Architecture Components

 Classification
 Coloring
 Admission Control
 Traffic Shaping/Policing
 Congestion Management
 Congestion Avoidance
 Signaling

38
 Traffic Classification

 Most fundamental QoS building block

 The component of a QoS feature that recognizes
and distinguishes between different traffic
streams
 Without classification, all packets are treated the
same

39
 Traffic Classification/
Admission Control Issues

 Always performed at the network perimeter

 Makes traffic conform to the internal network
policy
 Marks packets with special flags (colors)
 Colors used afterwards inside the network for
QoS management

40
 Classification/
Admission Control Scheme

Meter

Admitted

Shaper/
Classifier Marker Policer
Packet

Dropped

41
 Classification Criteria

 IP header fields
 TCP/UDP header fields
 Routing information
 Packet Content (NBAR)
i.e. HTTP, HTTPS, FTP, Napster etc.

42
 Traffic Coloring Options

 IP Precedence
 DSCP
 QoS Group
 802.1p CoS
 ATM CLP
 Frame Relay DE

43
 Type-of-Service (RFC791)

Precedence D T R Unused

Version Length ToS Field Total Length

…
0 8 15 31

0 1
D Normal Delay Low Delay

T Normal Throughput High Throughput

R Normal Reliability High Reliability

44
 IP Precedence Values

111 Network Control

110 Internetwork Control
101 Critical
100 Flash Override
011 Flash
010 Immediate
001 Priority
000 Routine

45
 DSCP
Diffserv Code Point

DSCP (6 bits) Unused

Class 1 Class 2 Class 3 Class 4

Low Drop
001010 010010 011010 100010
Precedence

Medium Drop
Precedence 001100 010100 011100 100100

High Drop
Precedence 001110 010110 011110 100110

46
 Classification mechanisms

 MQC ( Modular Qos Command Line Interface)

 CAR ( Commited Access Rate)

47
 Modular QoS CLI

Modular QoS CLI (MQC)

Command syntax introduced in 12.0(5)T

Reduces configuration steps and time
Uniform CLI across all main Cisco IOS-based
platforms
Uniform CLI structure for all QoS features

48
 Basic MQC Commands
router(config)#
class-map [match-any | match-all] class-name

• 1. Create Class Map - a traffic class ( match access list, input

interface, IP Prec, DSCP, protocol (NBAR) src/dst MAC address, mpls
exp).
router(config)#
policy-map policy-map-name

• 2. Create Policy Map (Service Policy) - Associate a

class map with one or more QoS policies (bandwidth, police, queue-
limit, random detect, shape, set prec, set DSCP, set mpls exp).
router(config-if)#
service-policy {input | output} policy-map-name

• 3. Attach Service Policy - Associate the policy map with an

input or output interface.
49
 Basic MQC Commands
 1. Create Class Map – defines traffic selection criteria
Router(config)# class-map class1
Router(config-cmap)# match ip precedence 5
Router(config-cmap)# exit
 2. Create Policy Map- associates classes with actions
Router(config)# policy-map policy1
Router(config-pmap)# class class1
Router(config-pmap-c)# set mpls experimental 5
Router(config-pmap-c)# bandwidth 3000
Router(config-pmap-c)# queue-limit 30
Router(config-pmap)# exit
 3. Attach Service Policy – enforces policy to interfaces
Router(config)# interface e1/1
Router(config-if)# service-policy output policy1
Router(config-if)# exit

50
Classification Configuring Sample
MQC based IOS 12.1(5)T
class-map match-all premium
match access-group name premium
!
class-map match-any trash Traffic class definitions
match protocol napster
match protocol fasttrack
!
policy-map classify
class premium
set ip precedence priority QoS policy definition
class trash
police 64000 conform-action set-prec-transmit 1
excess-action drop
!
ip access-list extended premium
permit tcp host 10.0.0.1 any eq telnet ACL definition
!
interface serial 2/1
ip unnumbered loopback 0 QoS Policy attached
service-policy input classify to interface
51
 Classification Configuring Sample

CAR based
ip cef
!
interface serial 2/1
ip unnumbered loopback 0
rate-limit input access-group 100 64000 8000 8000
conform-action set-prec-transmit 1 exceed-action
set-prec-transmit 0
!
access-list 100 permit tcp host 10.0.0.1 any eq http

CAR definition

ACL definition

52
 Classification Configuring Sample

Route-map based
route-map classify permit 10
match ip address 100
set ip precedence flash
!
route-map classify permit 20 Route-map definitions
match ip next-hop 1
set ip precedence priority
!
interface serial 2/1
ip unnumbered loopback 0
ip policy route-map classify Route-map attached
! to interface
access-list 1 permit 192.168.0.1
access-list 100 permit tcp host 10.0.0.1 any eq http

ACL definitions
53
 Shaping/Policing

 Used to assign more predictive behavior to traffic

 Uses Token Bucket model

54
 Token Bucket Model

Token Bucket characterizes traffic source

Tokens

Token Bucket main parameters: v

 Token Arrival Rate - v
 Bucket Depth - Bc
Bc
 Time Interval – tc
 Link Capacity - C Overflow Tokens

tc = Bc/v Incoming
Conform
packets

Exceed
55
 Token Bucket Model

 Bucket is being filled with tokens at a rate v token/sec.

 When bucket is full all the excess tokens are discarded.
 When packet of size L arrives, bucket is checked for
availability of corresponding amount of tokens.
 If several packets arrive back-to-back and there are
sufficient tokens to serve them all, they are accepted at
peak rate (usually physical link speed).
 If enough tokens available, packet is optionally colored
and accepted to the network and corresponding amount of
tokens is subtracted from the bucket.
 If not enough tokens, special action on packet is
performed.

56
 Token Bucket Model

Actions performed on nonconforming packets:

 Dropped (Policing)
 Delayed in queue either FIFO or WFQ (Shaping)
 Colored/Recolored

57
 Token Bucket Model

Bucket depth variation effect:

Bc = 0 Constant Bit Rate (CBR)
Bc No Regulation

Bucket depth is characteristic of traffic burstiness

Maximum number of bytes transmitted over period of time t:

A(t)max = Bc+v·t

58
 Excess Burst (Be)
Cisco Implementation

GTS ( Generic Traffic Shaping)

If during previous tcn-1 interval bucket Bc was not depleted (there is
no congestion), in the next interval tcn Bc+Be bytes are available for
burst.
In frame relay implementations packets admitted via Be tokens are
marked with DE bit.

59
 Excess Burst (Be)
Cisco Implementation

CBTS (Class Based Traffic Shaping)

allows higher throughput in uncongested environment up to peak
rate calculated as
vPeak = vCIR(1+Be/Bc)
Peak rate can be set up manually.

60
 Excess Burst (Be)
Cisco Implementation

CAR
allows RED like behavior:
 traffic fitting into Bc always conforms
 traffic fitting into Be conforms with probability proportional to
amount of tokens left in the bucket
 traffic not fitting into Be always exceeds

CAR uses the following parameters:

 t – time period since the last packet arrival
 Current Debt (Dcur) – Amount of debt during current time interval
 Compound Debt (Dcomp) – Sum of all Dcur since the last drop
 Actual Debt (Dact) – Amount of tokens currently borrowed

61
 Excess Burst (Be)
Cisco Implementation

Packet of length
L arrived CAR Algorithm

Y Conform
Bccur – L > 0 Bccur = Bccur – L Action

Dcur = L - Bccur
Bccur = 0 Y Exceed
Dcomp = Dcomp + Dcur Dact > Be Action
Dact = Dact + Dcur
+v·t N

Y
Dcomp > Be Dcomp = 0

62
 Shaping Configuration Sample

GTS Based
interface serial 2/1
ip unnumbered loopback 0
traffic-shape rate 64000 8000 1000 256
!
interface serial 2/2 Shaper Definitions
ip unnumbered loopback 0
traffic-shape group 100 64000 8000 8000 512
!
access-list 100 permit tcp host 10.0.0.1 any eq http
ACL definition

Shaper can be only used to control egress traffic flow!

63
 Policing Configuration Sample

CAR Based
IOS 12.0(5)T
ip cef
interface serial 2/1
ip unnumbered loopback 0
rate-limit output access-group 100 64000 8000 16000
conform-action transmit excess-action drop
CAR Definitions
!
interface serial 2/2
ip unnumbered loopback 0
rate-limit input 128000 16000 32000 conform-action
transmit excess-action drop
!
access-list 100 permit tcp host 10.0.0.1 any eq http
ACL definition

Policer can be used to control ingress traffic flow!

64
Shaping/Policing Configuration
Sample

MQI Based
IOS 12.1(5)T
class-map match-all policed
match protocol http
Class definitions
class-map match-all shaped
match access-group name ftp-downloads
!
policy-map bad-boy
class policed
police 64000 8000 8000 conform-action transmit
exceed-action drop
class shaped QoS policy definition
shape average 128000
!
interface serial 2/1 QoS Policy attached
ip unnumbered loopback 0 to interface
service-policy output bad-boy
!
ip access-list extended ftp-downloads ACL definition
permit tcp any eq ftp-data any
65
 CAR Policing Problem

Why cannot my traffic reach CIR value?

Cause: Improper setting of Bc and Be values

CAR is aggressive, as drops excessive packets and the lost data needs to
be retransmitted by upper layers (mainly TCP) after timeout. This also
causes TCP to shrink its window reducing flow throughput.

Cisco Systems recommends the following settings:

Bc = 1.5xCIR/8
Be = 2xBc

66
 Congestion Management

67
 Queuing

 Traffic burst may temporarily exceed

interface capacity
 Without queuing this excess traffic will
be lost
 Queuing allows bursty traffic to be
transmitted without drops
 Queuing strategy defines order in
which packets are transmitted through
egress interface
 Queuing introduced additional delay
which signals to adaptive flows (like
TCP) to back off their throughput

68
 Queuing Algorithms

 FIFO
 Priority (Absolute)
 Weighted Round Robin (WRR)
 Fair

69
 FIFO

 Simplest queuing method with the least CPU

overhead
 No congestion control
 Transmits packets in the order of arrival
 High volume traffic can suppress interactive flows
 Default queuing for interfaces > 2Mbps (i.e. Ethernet)

70
 FIFO

FIFO average queue depth dependence on load

71
 Absolute Priority Queuing

 Generic Priority Queuing

 Custom Queuing
 RTP Priority Queuing
 Low Latency Queuing (LLQ)

72
 Simplest QoS Algorithm: Priority
Queuing

Stated requirement:
–“If <application> has traffic waiting,
send it next”
Commonly implemented
–Defined behavior of IP precedence

73
 Priority Queuing Implementation
Approach

Identify interesting traffic

–Access lists
Place traffic in various queues
Dequeue in order of queue precedence

74
 Priority Queuing (PQ)
Interface Hardware
• Ethernet
High • Frame Relay
• ATM
Traffic • Serial Link
Destined Medium
• Etc.
for Interface
Classify
Normal
Transmit Output
Queue Line
Low
Q Length Defined
by Q Limit
Absolute Priority
Scheduling
Interface Buffer
Classification by: Resources
• Protocol (IP, IPX, AppleTalk,
SNA, DecNet, Bridge, etc.)
• Incoming Interface
(EO, SO, S1, etc.)
75
 Priority Queuing Scheme

Y Y Y Y
High Empty? Medium Empty? Normal Empty? Low Empty?

N N N N

Send packet Send Packet Send Packet Send Packet

from High from Medium from Normal from Low

76
 Generic PQ Drawbacks

 Needs thorough admission control

 No upper limit for each priority level
 High risk of low priority queues` starvation effect

77
 Generic PQ Configuration Sample

priority-list 1 protocol ip high tcp telnet

priority-list 1 protocol ip high list 100 PQ Definition
priority-list 1 protocol ip medium lt 1000
priority-list 1 interface ethernet 0/0 medium
priority-list 1 default low
!
interface serial 2/1
ip unnumbered loopback 0
priority-group 1 PQ Attached
! to Interface
access-list 100 permit tcp host 10.0.0.1 any eq http
ACL definition

78
 Custom Queuing (CQ)
(Weighted Round Robin)

Interface Hardware
• Ethernet
• Frame Relay
• ATM
1/10 • Serial Link
• Etc.
2/10
Traffic
Destined 3/10
for Interface Transmit Output
2/10 Queue Line
Classify
3/10

Up to 16
Link
Q Length Utilization Weighted Round
Deferred by Ratio Robin Scheduling
Queue Limit (byte count)

Classification by: Interface Allocate

• Protocol (IP, IPX, AppleTalk, Buffer Proportion of
SNA, DecNet, Bridge, etc.) Resources Link Bandwidth)
• Incoming interface
(EO, SO, S1, etc.)
79
 WRR Drawbacks

 Unpredictable jitter
 Fairness significantly depends on MTU and TCP
window size
 Complex calculations to achieve desired traffic
proportions

80
 CQ Byte-count Calculus

Distribute bandwidth to 3 queues with proportion x:y:z and packet sizes qx, qy, qz.

1.Calculate ax=x/qx, ay=y/qy, az=z/qz.

2.Normalize and round ax, ay, az.
ax’= round(ax/min(ax, ay, az)); ay’= round(ay/min(ax, ay, az)); az’= round(az/min(ax, ay, az)).
3.Convert obtained packet proportion into byte count
bcx = ax’·qx; bcy = ay’·qy; bcz = az’·qz.
4.Actual bandwidth share of i-th queue can be calculated with the following formula:

bci
sharei  n
C
 bc
j 1
j

5.For better approximation obtained byte-counts can be multiplied by some positive whole
number.

Starting with IOS 12.1 CQ employs Deficit Round Robin

algorithm and there is no need in such byte-count tuning.
81
 CQ Configuration Sample
queue-list 1 protocol ip 1 tcp telnet
queue-list 1 protocol ip 2 list 100
queue-list 1 protocol ip 3 udp 53
queue-list 1 interface ethernet 0/0 4
queue-list 1 queue 1 byte-count 3000 CQ List Definition
queue-list 1 queue 2 byte-count 4500
queue-list 1 queue 3 byte-count 3000
queue-list 1 queue 4 byte-count 1500
queue-list 1 default 4
!
interface serial 2/1 CQ Attached
ip unnumbered loopback 0 to Interface
custom-queue-list 1
!
access-list 100 permit tcp host 10.0.0.1 any eq http
ACL Definition

82
 “Bitwise Round Robin” Fair Queuing

TDM Model

Time Division
Multiplexer

Keshav, Demers, Shenker, and Zhang

Simulates a TDM
One flow per channel

83
 TDM Message Arrival Sequence

6 4 1

5 2
Time Division
3 Multiplexer

84
 TDM Message Delivery Sequence

5 4 1

6 3
Time Division
Multiplexer 2

85
 Fair Queuing Algorithm

Employs virtual bit-by-bit round robin model (BRR)

R 
BRR dynamics are described by the equation: 
t N ac (t )
i-th packet from flow  arriving at time t0 is services at
time t : R(ti )  R(ti 0 )  Pi
Servicing of i-th packet from flow  will start at Si and finish at Fi :
Si  MAX ( Fi1 , R(ti )) Fi  Si  Pi
Additional  parameter is added for priority assignment to inactive flows :
Bi  MAX ( Fi1 , R(ti )   )
Packets are ordered for transmission according to Bi values.

86
 Fair Queuing Approach

Enqueue traffic in the sequence

the TDM would deliver it
As a result, be as fair as the TDM

87
 Effects of Fair Queuing

Low-bandwidth flows get

–As much bandwidth as they can use
–Timely service
High-bandwidth flows
–Interleave traffic
–Cooperatively share bandwidth
–Absorb latency

88
 What Weighting Does

In TDM
–Channel speed determines message “duration”
In WFQ
–Multiplier on message length changes
simulated message “duration”
Result:
–Flow’s “fair” share predictably unfair

89
 Weighted Fair Queuing (WFQ)

Traffic
Destined
for Interface Transmit Output
Queue Line
Classify

Weighted Fair
Scheduling
Configurable
Number of
Queues

Flow-Based Classification by: Interface Weight Determined by:

• Source and destination address
• Protocol
• Session identifier (port/socket)
90
Buffer • Requested QoS (IP Procedure, RSVP)
Resources • Frame Relay FECN, BECN, DE
(For FR Traffic)
• Flow throughput (weighted-fair)
 Weighted Fair Queuing (WFQ)

 Fair bandwidth per flow allocation

 Low delay for interactive applications
 Protection from ill-behaved sources

91
 Weighted Fair Queuing (WFQ)

Flow classified by the following fields:

 Source address
 Source port
 Destination address
 Destination port
 ToS

Weight of each flow (queue) depends on ToS:

weight = 1/(precedence+1)

Bandwidth distributed in 1/weight proportions

92
 Weighted Fair Queuing (WFQ)
 Packets are ordered according to the expected virtual departure time
of their last bit.
 Low volume flows have preference over high volume transfers.
 Low volume flow is identified as using less than its share of
bandwidth.
 The special queue length threshold value is established, after which
only low volume flows can enqueue. All the packets, that belong to
high volume flows are dropped.

93
 Drawbacks of Weighted Fair
Queuing

Requires more sorting

than other approaches

94
 Weighted Fair Queuing (WFQ)

FTP
Delay

Telnet

95
 Weighted Fair Queuing (WFQ)

FTP

Telnet
Delay

96
 WFQ Configuration Sample

interface serial 2/1

ip unnumbered loopback 0
fair-queue 32 128 0

Queue Threshold Number of

(packets) reservable queues
Maximal number
of queues

97
 RTP Priority Queuing

 Classifies only by UDP port range

 Only even ports from the range are classified
 Establishes upper limit via integrated policer
 Excess traffic dropped during congestion periods
 RTP PQ has priority over LLQ

98
 RTP PQ Configuration Sample

interface serial 2/1

ip unnumbered loopback 0
ip rtp priority 16384 16383 256

Starting UDP port Bandwidth Limit

(kbps)
Range length

99
 Low Latency Queuing (LLQ)

 Implemented using MQI

 Very rich classification criteria (class-map)
 Establishes upper limit via integrated policer
 Excess traffic dropped during congestion periods

100
 LLQ Configuration Sample
IOS 12.0(5)T
class-map match-all voice
match access-group name voip
Class definitions
!
policy-map llq
class voip
priority 30
LLQ policy definition
class class-default
fair-queue 64
!
interface serial 2/1
ip unnumbered loopback 0 LLQ Policy attached
service-policy output llq to interface
!
ip access-list extended voip ACL definition
permit ip host 10.0.0.1 any

101
 Class Based WFQ (CBWFQ)

 Based on the same algorithm as WFQ

 Weights can be manually configured
 Allows to easily specify guaranteed bandwidth
for a class
 Configuration based on Cisco MQI

102
CBWFQ Configuration Sample

IOS 12.0(5)T
class-map match-all premium
match access-group name premium-cust
class-map match-all low-priority Class definitions
match protocol napster
!
policy-map cbwfq-sample
class premium
Qos policy definition
bandwidth 512
class low-priority
shape average 128
shape peak 512
class class-default
fair-queue 64
!
interface serial 2/1 QoS Policy attached
ip unnumbered loopback 0
max-reserved-bandwidth 85
to interface
service-policy output cbwfq-sample
!
ip access-list extended premium-cust
permit ip host 10.0.0.1 any
ACL definition
103
CBWFQ Configuration Sample

Hierarchical Design
IOS 12.1(5)T
class-map match-all premium interface fastethernet 1/0
match access-group name premium-cust ip unnumbered loopback 0
class-map match-all voice max-reserved-bandwidth 85
match ip precedence flash service-policy output total-shaper
! !
policy-map total-shaper ip access-list extended premium-cust
class class-default permit ip host 10.0.0.1 any
shape average 1536
service-policy class-policy
policy-map class-policy
class premium
bandwidth 512
class voice
priority 64
class class-default
fair-queue 128

104
Hierarchical CBWFQ Limitations

 Only two levels of hierarchy are supported

 set command not supported in child policy
 Shaping allows only in parent policy
 LLQ can be configured only either in child or
parent policies but not in both
 FQ allowed only in child policy

105
 Congestion Avoidance

106
 Global Synchronization Effect
Load

Link Capacity

Avg. Throughput

107
 Tail Drop and TCP Flow Control

 Packet drops from all TCP sessions

simultaneously
 High probability of multiple drops from the same
TCP session
 Uniformly distributed drops from high volume and
interactive flows

Result: Low average throughput!

108
 Random Early Detection (RED)
Developed by Van Jacobson in 1993

 Starts randomly dropping packets before actual

congestion occurs
 Keeps average queue depth low
 Increases average throughput

109
 Global Synchronization Removed
Load

Link Capacity

Avg. Throughput

110
Random Early Detection (RED)

p p
Tail Drop RED

1 1

Adjustable

0 0
qmax qavg  min  max qavg

111
Random Early Detection (RED)

RED Parameters:
 min – Minimal threshold after which RED starts packet drops.
Minimal recommended value is 5 packets.
 max – Maximal threshold after which all packets are dropped.
Recommended value is 2-3 times min.
  - Mark probability denominator denotes packet drop probability
at max average queue depth. Optimal value – 0.1 .
  - Exponential weighting factor determines the level of
backward value-dependence in average queue depth
calculation:
qavg = (qold · (1 - 2-)) + (qcur · 2-)
General recommendation  = 9.

112
 TCP Rate Control - 1

 In TCP, the spacing of ACKs and the window size in the

ACKs controls the transmitter’s rate.
 Rate Control manipulates the ACKs as they pass through
the rate control device by:
– Adjusting the size of TCP ACK window
– Inserting new ACKs
– Re-spacing existing ACKs
 Rate Control works only with TCP; other methods, such
as Token Bucket, must be used with UDP.
 Rate Control violates the protocol layering design, as it
allows network devices to manipulate a higher-layer
protocol’s operation. Nevertheless, it usually functions
well and provides fine-grained control.
TCP Rate Control - 2

 Example:
Transmitter Rate-control device Receiver

w: 8 000
windo

w: 2 000
windo

0 0
in d o w: 20
w

0 0
in d o w: 20
w

w: 2 000
windo
 Weighted Random Early Detection
(WRED)

 Modified version of RED

 Weights determine the set of parameters: min ,
max and  .
 Weight depends on ToS field value
 Interactive flows are preserved

115
 WRED Configuration Sample

Interface based
interface serial 2/1
ip unnumbered loopback 0 min
max
random-detect
random-detect 0 32 64 20
random-detect 1 32 64 20
random-detect 2 32 64 20
random-detect 3 32 64 20 
…

116
 WRED Configuration Sample

MQI based
policy-map red
class class-default min
max
random-detect
random-detect 0 32 64 20
random-detect 1 32 64 20
random-detect 2 32 64 20
random-detect 3 32 64 20

…
interface Serial2/1
ip unnumbered loopback 0
service-policy output red

WRED is incompatible with LLQ feature!

117
 Link Optimization

118
 Link Fragmentation and
Interleaving (LFI)

For links < 128kbps

Jumbogram Voice
Packet

64 kbps

1500 bytes  190ms

119
 Link Fragmentation and
Interleaving (LFI)

64 kbps
Supported interfaces:
 Multilink PPP
 Frame Relay DLCI
 ATM VC
120
 LFI Configuration Sample

MLP version
interface virtual-template 1
ip unnumbered loopback 0
ppp multilink
ppp multilink interleave
ppp multilink fragment-delay 30
ip rtp interleave 16384 1024 512
…

121
 Signaling

122
 Resource Reservation Protocol
(RSVP)

 End-to-end QoS signaling protocol

 Used to establish dynamic reservations over the
network
 Always establishes simplex reservation
 Supports unicast and multicast traffic
 Actually uses WFQ and WRED mechanisms

123
 Resource Reservation Protocol
(RSVP)

124
 Resource Reservation Protocol
(RSVP)

125
 Resource Reservation Protocol
(RSVP)

Reservation Types:
 Guaranteed Rate (uses WFQ and LLQ)
 Controlled Load (uses WRED)
Distinct Shared

Explicit Fixed Filter (FF) Shared Explicit (SE)

Wildcard X Wildcard Filter (WF)

126
 Resource Reservation Protocol
(RSVP)

127
QoS Policy Propagation over BGP

 QoS policy can be shared inside single AS or

among different ASs.
 Community attribute is usually used for color
assignments
 Prevents manual policy changes in network
devices

128
QoS Policy Propagation over BGP

129
 QPPB Configuration Sample

Router A Router B
ip bgp-community new-format ip bgp-community new-format
! !
router bgp 10 router bgp 20
neighbor 10.0.0.1 remote-as 20 neighbor 10.0.0.2 remote-as 10
neighbor 10.0.0.1 send-community table-map mark-pol
neighbor 10.0.0.1 route-map cout out !
! route-map mark-pol permit 10
route-map cout permit 10 match community 1
match ip address 20 set ip precedence flash
set community 60:9 !
! ip community-list 1 permit 60:9
access-list 20 permit 192.168.0.0 !
0.0.0.255 interface Serial 0/1
ip unnumbered loopback 0
bgp-policy source ip-prec-map

130
 Topics not Covered

 Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS)

 Frame Relay QoS
 ATM QoS
 Distributed Queuing Algorithms
 Multicast

131
 Conclusion

 QoS is not an exotic feature any more

 QoS allows specific applications (VoIP, VC) to
share network infrastructure with best-effort
traffic
 QoS in IP networks simplifies their
functionality avoiding Frame Relay and ATM
usage

132
 Questions???
133