Converged Network 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.
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.

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Converged Network Quality Issues

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Converged Network Quality Issues

Converged traffic characteristics:

Converged Network Quality Issues (Cont.)

End-to-end delay (fixed and variable): Packets have to

Packet loss: Packets may have to be dropped when a link is

Maximum available bandwidth equals the bandwidth of the slowest link.

Efficient Use of Available Bandwidth

Using advanced queuing and header compression mechanisms,

The Impact of Delay on Quality

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

Ways to Reduce Delay

Efficient Use of Ways to Reduce Delay

Customer routers perform:

Impact of Packet Loss

Telephone call: I cannot understand you. Your voice is breaking up.

Impact of Packet Loss (Cont.)

Many other types of drops occur, usually the result of router

Ways to Prevent Packet Loss

Packet Loss Solution

Problem: Interface congestion causes TCP and voice packet

2. Divide traffic into

QoS Traffic Classes

Identify Traffic and Its Requirements

The Requirements of Different Traffic Types

QoS is a way to improve the performance of converged

No QoS is applied to packets.

Applications signal to the network that they

The network recognizes classes that require

Best Effort Model

Best-effort is the default mode for all traffic.

Best-effort model is similar to using standard mailIt will get

Benefits and Drawbacks

The requested QoS parameters are then linked to a packet

IntServ Model (Cont.)

Uses RSVP to reserve resources

Network QoS policy enforces differentiated treatment of

Benefits and Drawbacks of the DiffServ

Although the best-effort model is highly scalable, it has no

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