Cisco 2950G 24 Software Configuration Guide - Page 526

Understanding QoS Chapter 26 Configuring QoS Port Priority Frames received from users in the administratively-defined VLANs are classified or tagged for transmission to other devices. Based on rules that you define, a unique identifier (the tag) is inserted in each frame header before it is forwarded. The tag is examined and understood by each device before any broadcasts or transmissions to other switches, routers, or end stations. When the frame reaches the last switch or router, the tag is removed before the frame is sent to the target end station. VLANs that are assigned on trunk or access ports without identification or a tag are called native or untagged frames. For IEEE 802.1Q frames with tag information, the priority value from the header frame is used. For native frames, the default priority of the input port is used. Port Scheduling Each port on the switch has a single receive queue buffer (the ingress port) for incoming traffic. When an untagged frame arrives, it is assigned the value of the port as its port default priority. You assign this value by using the CLI or CMS. A tagged frame continues to use its assigned CoS value when it passes through the ingress port. CoS configures each transmit port (the egress port) with a normal-priority transmit queue and a high-priority transmit queue, depending on the frame tag or the port information. Frames in the normal-priority queue are forwarded only after frames in the high-priority queue are forwarded. The switch (802.1P user priority) has four priority queues. The frames are forwarded to appropriate queues based on the priority-to-queue mapping that you defined. CoS and WRR The switch supports four CoS queues for each egress port. For each queue, you can specify these types of scheduling: • Strict priority scheduling Strict priority scheduling is based on the priority of queues. Queues can have priorities from 0 to 7, 7 being the highest. Packets in the high-priority queue always transmit first, and packets in the low-priority queue do not transmit until all the high-priority queues become empty. • Weighted round-robin (WRR) scheduling WRR scheduling requires you to specify a number that indicates the importance (weight) of the queue relative to the other CoS queues. WRR scheduling prevents the low-priority queues from being completely neglected during periods of high-priority traffic. The WRR scheduler transmits some packets from each queue in turn. The number of packets it sends corresponds to the relative importance of the queue. For example, if one queue has a weight of 3 and another has a weight of 4, three packets are sent from the first queue for every four that are sent from the second queue. By using this scheduling, low-priority queues have the opportunity to send packets even though the high-priority queues are not empty. 26-8 Catalyst 2950 Desktop Switch Software Configuration Guide 78-14982-01