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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

Latency
The time delay between sending a request and receiving a response, measured in milliseconds.
Network Packet
A formatted unit of data carried over a network, containing headers with routing information and a payload with the actual data.
HTTP Keep-Alive
An HTTP mechanism that reuses a single TCP connection for multiple requests, reducing the overhead of establishing new connections.
Traceroute
A network diagnostic tool that shows the path packets take from source to destination, listing each hop along the way.
OSI Model
The seven-layer Open Systems Interconnection model that standardizes network communication functions from physical transmission to application protocols.
Bandwidth
The maximum rate of data transfer across a network connection, measured in bits per second.
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