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QoS / QFI / QRI

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Quality of Service (QoS):

Definition:
Quality of Service (QoS) refers to the ability of a network to provide better service to selected network traffic over various technologies, ensuring a certain level of performance to a data flow in a network. QoS is crucial for applications that require a guaranteed level of service, such as voice over IP (VoIP), video streaming, online gaming, and other real-time applications.

Key Components of QoS:

  1. Bandwidth: The amount of data that can be transmitted in a fixed amount of time. QoS mechanisms allocate and manage bandwidth to ensure that critical applications get the necessary resources.
  2. Latency: The time it takes for data to travel from the source to the destination. Low latency is crucial for real-time applications to maintain the quality of service.
  3. Jitter: Variation in latency. Jitter can cause disruptions in real-time applications, so QoS mechanisms aim to minimize it.
  4. Packet Loss: The percentage of packets that are lost during transmission. Packet loss can degrade the quality of communication, and QoS helps mitigate this issue.
  5. Prioritization: QoS allows the prioritization of certain types of traffic over others. For example, VoIP packets might be given higher priority than file downloads.

QoS Mechanisms:

  1. Traffic Classification: Identifying and categorizing different types of network traffic based on characteristics such as source, destination, protocol, or application.
  2. Traffic Policing: Enforcing traffic policies by limiting the rate of traffic flow. Excess traffic can be dropped or marked down.
  3. Traffic Shaping: Controlling the flow of traffic to ensure a smoother and more predictable transmission pattern.
  4. Queue Management: Managing queues to determine the order in which packets are transmitted. Priority queues can be used to ensure high-priority traffic is processed first.
  5. Congestion Avoidance: Strategies to prevent network congestion before it occurs, such as by notifying sources to slow down or by dropping packets strategically.