Question

What kind of traffic benefits the most from support for QoS on a MAN?

Answer 1

ll networks can take advantage of aspects of QoS for optimum efficiency, whether the network is for a small corporation, an enterprise, or an Internet service provider (ISP). Different categories of networking users—such as major enterprises, network service providers, and small- and medium-sized businesses—have their own QoS requirements; in many areas, however, these requirements overlap.

Enterprise networks, for example, must provide end-to-end QoS solutions across the various platforms that comprise the network. Providing solutions for heterogeneous platforms often requires that you take a different QoS configuration approach for each technology. As enterprise networks carry more complex, mission-critical applications and experience increased traffic from web multimedia applications, QoS serves to prioritize this traffic to ensure that each application gets the service that it requires.

ISPs require assured scalability and performance. For example, ISPs that have long offered best-effort IP connectivity now also transfer voice, video, and other real-time critical application data. QoS answers the scalability and performance needs of these ISPs to distinguish different kinds of traffic, thereby enabling them to offer service differentiation to their customers.

In the small- and medium-sized business segment, managers are experiencing firsthand the rapid growth of business on the Internet. These business networks must also handle increasingly complex business applications. QoS lets the network handle the difficult task of utilizing an expensive WAN connection in the most efficient way for business applications.