Flow control involves measuring traffic flow for a class and then releasing packets onto the network at a defined rate. When you plan flow control, you define parameters to be used by the IPQoS metering module. The meter determines the rate at which traffic is released onto the network. For an introduction to the meter, see Meter (tokenmt and tswtclmt) Overview.
The next procedure assumes that you have defined filters and selectors, as described in How to Define Filters in the QoS Policy.
Determine the maximum bandwidth for your network.
Review any SLAs that are supported on your network to identify customers and the type of service that is guaranteed to each customer.
Because the SLA guarantees a certain level of service to a customer, you might need to meter certain traffic classes that are generated by the customer.
Review the list of classes that you created in How to Define the Classes for Your QoS Policy.
Determine if any classes other than those that are associated with SLAs need to be metered.
Suppose the IPQoS system runs an application that generates a high level of traffic. After you classify the application's traffic, meter the flows to control the rate at which the packets of the flow return to the network.
Not all classes need to be metered. Remember this guideline as you review your list of classes.
Refine your list of classes to be metered by determining which filters in the class select traffic that needs flow control.
Classes that have more than one filter might require metering for only one filter. Suppose you define filters for incoming and outgoing traffic of a certain class. You might conclude that only traffic in one of the directions requires flow control.
Choose a meter module for each class to be flow controlled.
Add the module name to the meter column in your organizational table.
Add the rates for each class to be metered to the organizational table.
If you use the tokenmt module, you need to define the following rates in bits per second.
Committed rate
Peak rate
If sufficient to meter a particular class, you can define only the committed rate and committed burst for tokenmt.
If needed, you can also define the following rates.
Committed burst
Peak burst
If you use the tswtclmt module, you need to define the following rates in bits per second.
Committed rate
Peak rate
You can also define the window size in milliseconds. These rates are defined in tswtclmt Metering Module and in the twstclmt(7ipp) man page.
Add traffic conformance outcomes for the metered traffic.
The outcomes for both metering modules are green, red, and yellow. Add to your QoS organizational table the traffic conformance outcomes that apply to the rates you define. Outcomes for the meters are fully explained in Meter Module.
You need to determine what action should be taken on traffic that conforms, or does not conform, to the committed rate. Often this action is to mark the packet header with a per-hop behavior, but not always. One acceptable action for green-level traffic could be to continue processing while traffic flows do not exceed the committed rate. Another action could be to drop packets of the class if flows exceed peak rate.
The next table shows meter entries for a class of email traffic. The network on which the IPQoS system is located has a total bandwidth of 100 Mbps, or 100000000 bits per second. The QoS policy assigns a low priority and best-effort forwarding behavior for the email class.
Table 2–5 Example QoS Policy With Meters Defined
Class |
Priority |
Filters |
Selectors |
Rate |
---|---|---|---|---|
|
8 |
mail_in |
daddr 10.50.50.5 dport imap direction LOCAL_IN |
|
|
|
mail_out |
saddr 10.50.50.5 sport imap direction LOCAL_OUT |
meter=tokenmt committed rate=5000000 committed burst =5000000 peak rate =10000000 peak burst=1000000 green precedence=continue processing yellow precedence=mark yellow PHB red precedence=drop |
Task |
For Information |
---|---|
Define forwarding behaviors for flows as they return to the network stream | |
Plan for flow accounting of certain types of traffic | |
Add more classes to the QoS policy | |
Add more filters to the QoS policy | |
Define another flow-control scheme | |
Create an IPQoS configuration file |
How to Begin the IPQoS Configuration File and Define Traffic Classes |