End-to-End QoS Network Design

Introduction

QoS is a maturing technology, one that many networking professionals, to a greater or lesser extent, are already familiar with. This is both a blessing and a curse. It is a blessing because more administrators are enabling QoS on their networks, which allows for the convergence of voice, video, and data onto a single IP network, among other business advantages. It is a curse because almost every individual with whom I’ve ever discussed QoS designs has a slightly different opinion on how QoS should be enabled.

The result often has led to confusing babble from the customer’s perspective, especially for customers seeking QoS design guidance for non-VoIP applications. For example, a customer might ask the local Cisco Systems engineer how ...