13-2
Catalyst 2950 Desktop Switch Software Configuration Guide
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Chapter 13 Configuring QoS
Understanding QoS
You can also use these wizards to configure QoS:
Note These wizards are available only if your switch is running the enhanced software image.
• Priority data wizard—Lets you assign priority levels to data applications based on their TCP or UDP
ports. It provides a standard list of applications, and you select the ones that you want to prioritize,
the priority levels, and the interfaces where the prioritization occurs. Refer to the priority data
wizard online help for step-by-step procedures on using this wizard.
• Video wizard—Gives traffic that originates from specified video servers a higher priority than the
priority of data traffic. The wizard assumes that the video servers are connected to a single device
in the cluster. Refer to the video wizard online help for step-by-step procedures on using this wizard.
This chapter consists of these sections:
• Understanding QoS, page 13-2
• Configuring QoS, page 13-9
• Displaying QoS Information, page 13-25
• QoS Configuration Examples, page 13-25
Understanding QoS
This section describes how QoS is implemented on the Catalyst 2950 switch. If you have the standard
software image installed on your switch, some concepts and features in this section might not apply.
For a list of available features, see Table13-1onpage13-1.
Typically, networks operate on a best-effort delivery basis, which means that all traffic has equal priority
and an equal chance of being delivered in a timely manner. When congestion occurs, all traffic has an
equal chance of being dropped.
When you configure the QoS feature, you can select specific network traffic, prioritize it according to
its relative importance, and use congestion-management and congestion-avoidance techniques to
provide preferential treatment. Implementing QoS in your network makes network performance more
predictable and bandwidth utilization more effective.
The QoS implementation is based on the DiffServ architecture, an emerging standard from the Internet
Engineering Task Force (IETF). This architecture specifies that each packet is classified upon entry into
the network. The classification is carried in the IP packet header, using 6 bits from the deprecated IP
Type-of-Service (TOS) field to carry the classification (class) information.
Classification can also be carried in the Layer 2 frame. These special bits in the Layer 2 frame or
a Layer 3 packet are described here and shown in Figure 13-1:
• PrioritizationvaluesinLayer2frames
Layer 2 802.1Q frame headers have a 2-byte Tag Control Information field that carries the class of
service (CoS) value in the three most-significant bits, which are called the User Priority bits. On
interfaces configured as Layer 2 802.1Q trunks, all traffic is in 802.1Q frames except for traffic in
thenativeVLAN.
Other frame types cannot carry Layer 2 CoS values.
Layer 2 CoS values range from 0 for low priority to 7 for high priority.
• Prioritization bits in Layer 3 packets
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