CCVP QOS Quick Reference Sheets

Traffic Conditioners

QoS mechanisms can not only provide for the allocation of a minimum amount of bandwidth for specific traffic but also limit the amount of bandwidth made available to that traffic. This section discusses how policing and shaping mechanisms limit traffic rates.

Policing Versus Shaping

Instead of allocating bandwidth for applications, in some instances, you might want to restrict the amount of bandwidth that is available for specific traffic. For example, you might want to set a “speed limit” for users on the network who are downloading music files from the Internet.

QoS mechanisms that limit bandwidth are called traffic conditioners. The two categories of traffic conditioners are policing and shaping. Although both of these ...