IPQoS Basics

IPQoS enables the Differentiated Services (diffserv) architecture that is defined by the Differentiated Services Working Group of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF). In the Solaris™ 9, 9/02 operating environment, IPQoS is implemented at the IP level of the TCP/IP protocol stack.

What Are Differentiated Services?

By enabling IPQoS, you can provide different levels of network service for selected customers and selected applications. These differentiated services can be based on a structure of service levels that your company offers to its customers. You can also provide differentiated services that are based on the priorities set for applications or users on your network.

Providing quality of service involves the following activities:

• Delegating levels of service to different groups, such as customers or departments in an enterprise

• Prioritizing network services that are given to particular groups or applications

• Discovering and eliminating areas of network bottlenecks and other forms of congestion

• Monitoring network performance and providing performance statistics

• Regulating bandwidth to and from network resources

IPQoS Features

IPQoS has the following features:

• Command-line tool for configuring the QoS policy

• Classifier that selects actions, which are based on filters that configure the QoS policy of your organization

• Metering module that measures network traffic, in compliance with the diffserv model

• Service differentiation that is based on the ability to mark a packet's IP header with forwarding information

• Flow-accounting module that gathers statistics for traffic flows

• Statistics gathering for traffic classes, through the UNIX® kstat command

• Support for SPARC™ architecture

• Support for IPv4 and IPv6 addressing

• Interoperability with IPsec

• Support for 802.1 D user priority markings for virtual local area networks (VLANs)

Where to Get More Information About Quality of Service

You can find information on differentiated services and quality of service from print and online sources.

Books

For more information on quality-of-service theory and practice, refer to the following books:

• Ferguson, Paul and Geoff Huston. Quality of Service. John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1998.

• Kilkki, Kalevi. Differentiated Services for the Internet. Macmillan Technical Publishing, 1999.

Requests for Comments (RFCs)

IPQoS conforms to the specifications that are described in the following RFCs and Internet drafts:

• RFC 2474, Definition of the Differentiated Services Field, which describes an enhancement to the ToS or DS fields of the IPv4 and IPv6 packet headers to support differentiated services.

• RFC 2475, An Architecture for Differentiated Services, which provides a detailed description of the organization and modules of the diffserv architecture.

• RFC 2597, Assured Forwarding PHB Group, which describes how the assured forwarding (AH) per-hop behavior works.

• RFC 2598, An Expedited Forwarding PHB, which describes how the expedited forwarding (EF) per-hop behavior works.

• Internet-Draft, An Informal Management Model for Diffserv Routers, which presents a model for implementing the diffserv architecture on routers.

Web Sites

The Differentiated Services Working Group of the IETF maintains a Web site with links to diffserv Internet drafts at http://www.ietf.org/html.charters/diffserv-charter.html.

Router manufacturers such as Cisco Systems and Juniper Networks provide information on their corporate Web sites that describes how differentiated services are implemented on their products.

Man Pages

The IPQoS distribution includes the following man pages.

• ipqosconf(1m), which is the command for setting up the IPQoS configuration file

• ipqos(7ipp), which describes the IPQoS implementation of the diffserv architectural model

• ipgpc(7ipp), which describes the IPQoS implementation of a diffserv classifier

• tokenmt(7ipp), which describes the IPQoS tokenmt meter module

• tswtclmt(7ipp), which describes the IPQoS tswtclmt meter module

• dscpmk(7ipp), which describes the DSCP marker module

• dlcosmk(7ipp), which describes the IPQoS 802.1D user priority marker module

• flowacct(7ipp), which describes the IPQoS flow-accounting module

• acctadm(1m), which is the command that configures the Solaris extended accounting facilities and now includes IPQoS extensions