Techniques to Improve QoS

In the previous section we tried to define QoS in terms of its characteristics. In this section, we discuss some techniques that can be used to improve the quality of service. We briefly discuss four common methods: scheduling, traffic shaping, admission control, and resource reservation.

Scheduling

Packets from different flows arrive at a switch or router for processing. A good scheduling technique treats the different flows in a fair and appropriate manner. Several scheduling techniques are designed to improve the quality of service.

We discuss three of them here:

FIFO queuing, priority queuing, and weighted fair queuing.

1. FIFO Queuing:

In first-in, first-out (FIFO) queuing, packets wait in a buffer (queue) until the node (router or switch) is ready to process them. If the average arrival 754 PART 4 APPLICATION LAYER rate is higher than the average processing rate, the queue will fill up and new packets will be discarded.

A FIFO queue is familiar to those who have had to wait for a bus at a bus stop. Figure 25.29 shows a conceptual view of a FIFO queue.

2. Priority Queuing

In priority queuing, packets are first assigned to a priority class. Each priority class has its own queue. The packets in the highest-priority queue are processed first. Packets in the lowest-priority queue are processed last. Note that the system does not stop serving a queue until it is empty. Figure shows priority queuing with two priority levels (for simplicity).

A priority queue can provide better QoS than the FIFO queue because higherpriority traffic, such as multimedia, can reach the destination with less delay. However, there is a potential drawback. If there is a continuous flow in a high-priority queue, the packets in the lower-priority queues will never have a chance to be processed. This is a condition called starvation.

3. Weighted Fair Queuing A better scheduling method is weighted fair queuing. In this technique, the packets are still assigned to different classes and admitted to different queues. The queues, however, are weighted based on the priority of the queues; higher priority means a higher weight.

For example, if the weights are 3, 2, and 1, three packets are processed from the first queue, two from the second queue, and one from the third queue. If the system does not impose priority on the classes, all weights can be equal. In this way, we have fair queuing with priority. Figure 25.31 shows the technique with three classes.

Traffic Shaping

Traffic shaping is a mechanism to control the amount and the rate of the traffic sent to the network.

Two techniques can shape traffic: leaky bucket and token bucket.

Leaky Bucket:- If a bucket has a small hole at the bottom, the water leaks from the bucket at a constant rate as long as there is water in the bucket. The rate at which the water leaks does not depend on the rate at which the water is input to the bucket unless the bucket is empty. The input rate can vary, but the output rate remains constant. Similarly, in networking, a technique called leaky bucket can smooth out bursty traffic. Bursty chunks are stored in the bucket and sent out at an average rate. Figure 25.32 shows a leaky bucket and its effects.

Token Bucket :- The leaky bucket is very restrictive. It does not credit an idle host. For example, if a host is not sending for a while, its bucket becomes empty. Now if the host has bursty data, the leaky bucket allows only an average rate. The time when the host was idle is not taken into account. On the other hand, the token bucket algorithm allows idle hosts to accumulate credit for the future in the form of tokens. For each tick of the clock, the system sends n tokens to the bucket. The system removes one token for every cell (or byte) of data sent.

For example, if n is 100 and the host is idle for 100 ticks, the bucket collects 10,000 tokens. Now the host can consume all these tokens in one tick with 10,000 cells, or the host takes 1,000 ticks with 10 cells per tick. In other words, the host can send bursty data as long as the bucket is not empty.