Introduction to IP QoS

Introducing QoS
Converged Networks
Quality Issues
Converged Network Quality Issues

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 are not acceptable.
Converged Network Quality Issues (Cont.)

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 increased delay.
Packet loss: Packets may have to be dropped when a link is
congested.
Available Bandwidth
Lack of Bandwidth

Maximum available bandwidth equals 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.
Bandwidth Availability

Upgrade the link (the best but also the most expensive solution).
Forward the important packets first.
Compress the payload of Layer 2 frames (it takes time).
Compress IP packet headers.
Efficient Use of Available Bandwidth

Using advanced queuing and header compression mechanisms,

the available bandwidth can be used in a much more efficient
way:
Voice: LLQ and RTP header compression
Interactive traffic: CBWFQ and TCP header compression
End-to-End Delay
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 for the packet to cross the link from one end to the
other.
The Impact of Delay on Quality

End-to-end delay equals the sum of all propagation, processing,

serialization, and queuing delays in the path.
Jitter defines the variation in the delay.
In best-effort networks, propagation and serialization delays are fixed,
while processing and queuing delays are unpredictable.
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 (it takes time).
Compress IP packet headers.
Efficient Use of Ways to Reduce Delay

Customer routers perform:

TCP/RTP header compression
LLQ
Prioritization
ISP routers perform:
Reprioritization according to the QoS policy
Packet Loss
Impact 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.
Impact of Packet Loss (Cont.)

Tail drops occur when the output queue is full. Tail drops are common
and happen when a link is congested.
Many other types of drops occur, usually the result of router
congestion, that are uncommon and may require a hardware upgrade
(such as, input drop, ignore, overrun, frame errors).
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.
Packet Loss Solution

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 and LLQ.
QoS Defined
QoS Defined
Implementing QoS
Implementing QoS

1. Identify traffic and its

requirements.
2. Divide traffic into
classes.
3. Define QoS policies for
each class.
QoS Traffic Classes
The Requirements of
Different Traffic Types
Identify Traffic and Its 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.
The Requirements of Different Traffic Types
QoS Policy
QoS Policy

A networkwide definition of
the specific levels of QoS
assigned to different
classes of network traffic
Summary

Converged networks that support voice, video, and data

create new requirements for managing network traffic. QoS
meets those requirements.
Converged networks suffer from different quality issues,
including lack of adequate bandwidth, end-to-end and
variable delay, and lost packets.
Packet loss can adversely affect QoS in a network.
QoS is a way to improve the performance of converged
networks.
Summary (Cont.)

Lack of recourses causes networks to experience different

types of delay, including processing delay, queuing delay,
serialization delay, and propagation delay.
QoS traffic classes need to be defined to implement a QoS
policy.
Implementing QoS requires three steps: identify
requirements, classify network traffic, and define
networkwide policies for quality.
A QoS policy is a networkwide definition of the specific
levels of QoS assigned to classes of network traffic.
Introduction to IP QoS

Identifying Models for Implementing QoS

QoS Models
QoS Models

Model Characteristics

Best effort No QoS is applied to packets.

IntServ Applications signal to the network that they

require certain QoS parameters.
DiffServ The network recognizes classes that require
QoS.
Best Effort Model
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 mailIt will get
there when it gets there.
Benefits and Drawbacks
of the Best-Effort Model

Benefits:
Highly scalable
No special mechanisms required
Drawbacks:
No service guarantees
No service differentiation
IntServ Model
IntServ Model

Introduction of IntServ model (RFC 1633) was driven by

real-time applications, such as remote video and
conferencing.
IntServ end-to-end model ensures guaranteed delivery and
predictable behavior of the network for applications.
Resource Reservation Protocol (RSVP) is used as a signaling
protocol.
The requested QoS parameters are then linked to a packet
stream.
End-to-end streams are not established if the required QoS
parameters are not available.
IntServ Model (Cont.)

Provides multiple service levels

Requests specific kind of
service from the network before
sending data
Uses RSVP to reserve resources
for specified QoS parameters
Intelligent queuing mechanisms
required to provide resource
reservation in terms of:
Guaranteed rate
Controlled load (low delay,
high throughput)
IntServ Functions

IntServ requires several functions on routers and

switches along the path:
Admission control
Classification
Policing
Queuing
Scheduling
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.
DiffServ Model
DiffServ Model

DiffServ (RFC 2474 and RFC 2475) was designed to

overcome the limitations of both the best-effort and IntServ
models.
Network traffic is identified by classes.
Network QoS policy enforces differentiated treatment of
traffic classes.
You choose level of service for each traffic class.
Benefits and Drawbacks of the DiffServ
Model

Benefits:
Highly scalable
Many levels of quality possible
Drawbacks:
No absolute service guarantee
Complex mechanisms
Summary

There are three models for providing QoS: best effort,

IntServ, and DiffServ.
Although the best-effort model is highly scalable, it has no
provision for differentiating among types of network traffic
and, as a result, does not provide QoS.
The IntServ model offers absolute QoS guarantees by
explicitly reserving bandwidth by using RSVP. Scalability is
achieved in conjunction with elements of the DiffServ model.
RSVP is not a routing protocol; thus, implementing RSVP in
an existing network does not require migration to a new
routing protocol.
The DiffServ model provides the ability to classify network
traffic and offer many levels of QoS while being highly
scalable.
Introduction to IP QoS

Identifying Methods for Implementing QoS

Methods for
Implementing QoS
Policy
Methods for Implementing QoS Policy

Method Description
Legacy CLI CLI
Configures QoS on interface level
Time-consuming
MQC CLI
Makes configurations modular
Best way for QoS fine tuning
Cisco AutoQoS Applies a possible QoS configuration to
the interfaces
Fastest way to implement QoS
Cisco SDM QoS wizard Application for simple QoS configurations
Legacy CLI
Legacy CLI

Uses the CLI via console and Telnet

Traditional method
Nonmodular
Cannot separate traffic classification from policy definitions
Time-consuming and potentially error-prone task
Used to augment, fine-tune newer Cisco AutoQoS method
Legacy CLI Usage Guidelines

Build a traffic policy:

Identify the traffic pattern.
Classify the traffic.
Prioritize the traffic.
Select a proper QoS mechanism:
Queuing
Compression
Apply the traffic policy to the interface.
Legacy CLI Example

For interactive traffic, CQ and TCP header compression can be used.

interface multilink
ip address 10.1.61.1 255.255.255.0
load-interval 30
custom-queue-list 1
ppp multilink
ppp multilink fragment-delay 10
ppp multilink interleave
multilink-group 1
ip tcp header-compression iphc-format
!
queue-list 1 protocol ip 2 tcp 23
Modular QoS CLI
Modular QoS CLI

A command syntax for configuring QoS policy

Reduces configuration steps and time
Configures policy, not raw per-interface commands
Uniform CLI across major Cisco IOS platforms
Uniform CLI structure for all QoS features
Separates classification engine from the policy
Modular QoS CLI Components
Modular QoS CLI Components
Modular QoS CLI Components
Class Maps

What traffic do we care about?

Each class is identified using a class map.
A traffic class contains three major elements:
A case-sensitive name
A series of match commands
An instruction on how to evaluate the match commands if
more than one match command exists in the traffic class
Class maps can operate in two modes:
Match all: All conditions have to succeed.
Match any: At least one condition must succeed.
The default mode is match all.
Configuring Class Maps

router(config)#
class-map [match-all | match-any] class-map-name

Enters class-map configuration mode.

Specifies the matching strategy.

router(config-cmap)#
match any

match not match-criteria

Use at least one condition to match packets.

router(config-cmap)#
description description

You should use descriptions in large and complex configurations.

The description has no operational meaning.
ACLs for Traffic Classification

router(config)#
access-list access-list-number {permit | deny | remark}
source [mask]

Standard ACL

router(config)#
access-list access-list-number {permit | deny} protocol
source source-wildcard [operator port] destination
destination-wildcard [operator port] [established] [log]

Extended ACL

router(config-cmap)#
match access-group access-list-number

Uses an ACL as a match criterion.

Policy Maps

What will be done to this traffic?

Defines a traffic policy, which configures the QoS features
associated with a traffic class previously identified using a
class map.
A traffic policy contains three major elements:
A case-sensitive name
A traffic class
The QoS policy associated with that traffic class
Up to 256 traffic classes can be associated with a single
traffic policy.
Multiple policy maps can be nested to influence the
sequence of QoS actions.
Configuring Policy Maps

router(config)#
policy-map policy-map-name
Enters policy-map configuration mode.
Policy maps are identified by a case-sensitive name.

router(config-pmap)#
class {class-name | class-default}
Enters the per-class policy configuration mode by using the name of a
previously configured class map.
Use the class-default name to configure the policy for the default class.

router(config-pmap)#
class class-name condition
Optionally, you can define a new class map by entering the condition after
the name of the new class map.
Uses the match any strategy.
Service Policy

Where will this policy be implemented?

Attaches a traffic policy configured with a policy map to an
interface.
Service policies can be applied to an interface for inbound or
outbound packets.
Attaching Service Policies to Interfaces

router(config-if)#
service-policy {input | output} policy-map-name

Attaches the specified service policy map to the input or

output interface

class-map HTTP
match protocol http
!
policy-map PM
class HTTP
bandwidth 2000
class class-default
bandwidth 6000
!
interface Serial0/0
service-policy output PM
MQC Example

Voice traffic needs priority, low delay, and constant

bandwidth.
Interactive traffic needs bandwidth and low delay.
MQC Example (Cont.)

hostname Office
!
class-map VoIP
match access-group 100 Classification
class-map Application
match access-group 101
!
policy-map QoS-Policy
class VoIP
priority 100
class Application QoS Policy
bandwidth 25
class class-default
fair-queue
!
interface Serial0/0
service-policy output QoS-Policy QoS Policy on Interface
!
access-list 100 permit ip any any precedence 5
access-list 100 permit ip any any dscp ef Classification
access-list 101 permit tcp any host 10.1.10.20
access-list 101 permit tcp any host 10.1.10.40
Basic Verification Commands

router#
show class-map

Displays the class maps

router#
show policy-map

Displays the policy maps

router#
show policy-map interface type number

Displays the applied policy map on the interface

AutoQoS
Cisco AutoQoS

Automatically discovers applications and provides

appropriate QoS treatment
Automatically generates initial and ongoing QoS policies
Provides high-level business knobs and multidevice and
domain automation for QoS
Generates intelligent, automatic alerts and summary reports
Enables automatic, seamless interoperability among all QoS
features and parameters across a network topologyLAN,
MAN, and WAN
The Features of Cisco AutoQoS

DiffServ Cisco IOS and Catalyst

Behavior
Function Software QoS Feature
Classification NBAR DSCP, port Classifies VoIP based on packet
attributes or port trust
Marking Class-based marking Sets Layer 2 and Layer 3 attributes
to categorize packets into a class
Congestion Percentage-based LLQ, Provides Expedited Forwarding
management WRR treatment to voice and best-effort
treatment to data
Shaping Class-based shaping or Shapes to CIR to prevent burst and
FRTS smooth traffic to configured rate
Link efficiency Header compression Reduces the VoIP bandwidth
mechanism requirement
Link efficiency Link Fragmentation and Reduces jitter experienced by voice
mechanism Interleaving packets
Cisco AutoQoS Usage Guidelines

Make sure that:

CEF is enabled.
NBAR is enabled.
Correct bandwidth statement is configured on the
interface.
Finally, enable Cisco AutoQoS on the interface.
Cisco AutoQoS Example

Enable Cisco AutoQoS on relevant devices (such as LAN switches and WAN
routers) that need to perform QoS.
Cisco AutoQoS Example (Cont.)

interface Serial1/3
ip cef
bandwidth 1540 IP CEF and Bandwidth
ip address 10.10.100.1 255.255.255.0
auto qos voip AutoQoS for VoIP Traffic Recognized by NBAR
SDM QoS Wizard
Cisco SDM QoS Wizard

Cisco SDM is an intuitive, web-based device management

tool for easy and reliable deployment and management of
Cisco IOS routers.
Cisco SDM provides wizards for:
Firewall and NAT
Intrusion prevention
IPsec VPNs
QoS
Routing
QoS Features

Cisco SDM QoS wizard provides:

QoS policing
NBAR
Traffic monitoring
Supported and preinstalled on Cisco 850, 870, 1800, 2800,
and 3800 Cisco Integrated Services Routers
Supported on devices 830, 1700, 2600 XM, 2800, 3700, 7200
VXR, and 7301
Getting Started with Cisco SDM
Create QoS Policy

1.

3.

2.
4.
QoS Wizard
Interface Selection
QoS Policy Generation
Summary
Summary (Cont.)
Summary (Cont.)
Summary (Cont.)
Summary (Cont.)
Command Delivery Status
 QoS Status

1.

2.
QoS Implementation
Methods Compared
QoS Implementation Methods Compared

Cisco Cisco SDM

Legacy CLI MQC
AutoQoS QoS Wizard

Ease of use Poor Easier Simple Simple

Ability to
OK Very good Limited Limited
fine-tune

Time to
Longest Average Shortest Short
implement

Modularity Poor Excellent Excellent Very good

Summary

There are four methods for implementing QoS: legacy CLI,

MQC, Cisco AutoQoS, and Cisco SDM QoS wizard.
CLI QoS configuration can be complex and in many cases
requires learning different syntax for different QoS
mechanisms.
MQC separates the classification of network traffic from the
definition of the QoS policy.
Cisco AutoQoS is used to automatically implement a set of
QoS policies on a router or a switch.
Cisco SDM QoS wizard provides a GUI to ease QoS
configuration.
MQC is the recommended manual approach to configure
QoS. MQC reduces configuration steps and time compared to
the legacy approach.
Module Summary
The problems that can lead to poor QoS for applications
running on a converged network include lack of bandwidth,
excessive delay, jitter, and packet loss.
To implement QoS on a converged network, follow this
process:
Identify the traffic types and their requirements.
Classify the traffic.
Define and implement QoS policies for each traffic class.
The three QoS models are best effort, IntServ, and DiffServ.
In the best effort model, no special QoS mechanisms are
applied.
With IntServ, applications signal their QoS requirements.
With DiffServ, network devices recognize the traffic classes
and provide different QoS levels.
The four techniques to implement QoS are the legacy CLI
method, MQC, Cisco AutoQoS, and Cisco SDM QoS wizard.