IPQoS enables the Differentiated Services (Diffserv) architecture that is defined by the Differentiated Services Working Group of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF). In Oracle Solaris, IPQoS is implemented at the IP level of the TCP/IP protocol stack.
By enabling IPQoS, you can provide different levels of network service for selected customers and selected applications. The different levels of service are collectively referred to as differentiated services. The differentiated services that you provide to customers can be based on a structure of service levels that your company offers to its customers. You can also provide differentiated services based on the priorities that are set for applications or users on your network.
Providing quality of service (QoS) 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 has the following features:
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 and x86 architecture
Support for IPv4 and IPv6 addressing
Interoperability with IP Security Architecture (IPsec)
Support for 802.1D user-priority markings for virtual local area networks (VLANs)
You can find information about differentiated services and quality of service from print and online sources.
IPQoS conforms to the specifications that are described in the following RFCs:
RFC 2474, Definition of the Differentiated Services Field (DS Field) in the IPv4 and IPv6 Headers (http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2474.txt?number=2474) – Describes an enhancement to the type of service (ToS) field or DS fields of the IPv4 and IPv6 packet headers to support differentiated services
RFC 2475, An Architecture for Differentiated Services (http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2475.txt?number=2475) – Provides a detailed description of the organization and modules of the Diffserv architecture
IPQoS documentation includes the following man pages:
ipqosconf(1M) - Describes the command for setting up the IPQoS configuration file
ipqos(7ipp) – Describes the IPQoS implementation of the Diffserv architectural model
ipgpc(7ipp) – Describes the IPQoS implementation of a Diffserv classifier
tokenmt(7ipp) – Describes the IPQoS tokenmt meter
tswtclmt(7ipp) – Describes the IPQoS tswtclmt meter
dscpmk(7ipp) – Describes the DSCP marker module
dlcosmk(7ipp) – Describes the IPQoS 802.1D user-priority marker module
flowacct(7ipp)– Describes the IPQoS flow-accounting module
acctadm(1M) – Describes the command that configures the Oracle Solaris extended accounting facilities and includes IPQoS extensions.