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Networking Intermediate

What is QoS (Quality of Service)?

A set of techniques for managing network traffic to prioritize certain types of data and ensure performance for critical applications.

QoS manages bandwidth, latency, jitter, and packet loss by classifying and prioritizing traffic. Voice and video traffic get higher priority than file downloads. Techniques include traffic shaping, policing, queuing, and marking.

Common QoS mechanisms include DiffServ (packet marking), DSCP (priority codes), and traffic policing (drop excess traffic). QoS is essential in enterprise networks for VoIP, video conferencing, and real-time applications that are sensitive to delays.

Related Terms

Bandwidth
The maximum rate of data transfer across a network connection, measured in bits per second.
Load Balancer
A device or software that distributes network traffic across multiple servers to ensure reliability and performance.
Reverse Proxy
A server that sits between clients and backend servers, forwarding client requests and returning server responses on their behalf.
DHCP
A protocol that automatically assigns IP addresses and network configuration to devices on a network.
Content Delivery Network (CDN)
A geographically distributed network of servers that caches and delivers web content from locations closest to users for faster load times.
VLAN (Virtual LAN)
A logical grouping of network devices that creates separate broadcast domains on the same physical network infrastructure.
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