Two important questions VoIP network administrators should know the answers to are:

a. Why is Quality of Service critical to networks?

b. Who benefits from Quality of Service?

 

According to Randy Garrett, Senior Systems Engineer at Ketnrox, there are several key reasons why Quality of Service—which refers to “the ability of a network to provide improved service to selected network traffic over various underlying technologies”—is critical.

 

Quality of Service improves the predictability of network services in the following ways, Garrett said.

1. Supports dedicated bandwidth.

2. Improves loss characteristics.

3. Shapes network traffic.

4. Sets traffic priorities across the network.

 

As to who benefits from Quality of Service, the answer from Garrett is very broad:  “All networks can take advantage of QoS for optimum efficiency, whether the network is for a small corporation, an enterprise, or an Internet Service Provider (ISP).”

 

Of course, different types of networks do have their own requirements for Quality of Service. In some, but not all, cases these requirements overlap.

 

For enterprises, Garrett said, the focus typically is on providing end-to-end solutions for heterogeneous platforms. That often requires a different Quality of Service configuration for each technology.

 

ISPs, on the other hand, typically focus their Quality of Service efforts on assured scalability and performance, Garrett said. Quality of Service distinguishes different kinds of traffic, enabling providers to offer service differentiation—voice, video, and other real-time apps—to their customers.

 

Managers at small and medium-sized businesses, Garrett said, are experiencing first hand the growth of Internet-based business. As a result, their Quality of Service focus usually is on handling increasingly complex applications, and ensuring that expensive WAN connections are used in the most efficient way possible.

 

 

VoIP Quality of Service