Practical IP Quality of Service, Classification, Policing, Shaping, Queuing, and Scheduling
1-Day Instructor-Led Hands-On Lab Class
Available in either Web-Based Delivery or On-Site Delivery
Minimum 10 students – Maximum 16 students
Course Description
Quality of Service becomes important whenever different types of network traffic compete for limited bandwidth, delay-sensitive applications must be protected, or network operators need greater control over how traffic is treated.
CSI-HO-015 – Hands-On Quality of Service (QoS) is a focused one-day course that introduces the engineering concepts and practical mechanisms used to classify, mark, police, shape, queue, and schedule IP traffic.
Students learn not simply what the QoS mechanisms are called, but why they are used, where they fit, and how they affect network traffic.
Instructor-led discussion is reinforced with hands-on exercises using Cisco routers and Cisco IOS. Students work with QoS configuration techniques and observe how different policies affect traffic behavior.
The course addresses practical questions such as:
- What is Quality of Service?
- When is QoS actually necessary?
- How is traffic identified and classified?
- What is the difference between policing and shaping?
- How do queuing and scheduling affect traffic?
- What are Integrated Services and Differentiated Services?
- Where do RSVP and DiffServ fit?
- How does QoS support voice and other real-time applications?
- How can QoS policy affect IPv4 and IPv6 traffic?
Course Objectives
Upon completion of this course, students will be able to:
- Explain the purpose of Quality of Service.
- Identify situations where QoS can improve network performance.
- Explain traffic classification and marking.
- Understand the Cisco Modular QoS Command-Line Interface.
- Explain the difference between traffic policing and shaping.
- Describe common queuing techniques.
- Explain packet scheduling concepts.
- Understand Integrated Services and RSVP.
- Understand the Differentiated Services architecture.
- Explain fundamental LAN QoS concepts.
- Describe the relationship between QoS and traffic engineering.
- Explain how RTP and RTCP relate to real-time application traffic.
- Configure and observe fundamental QoS mechanisms in a hands-on lab environment.
The emphasis is on understanding the behavior of QoS mechanisms and selecting the appropriate tool for the network requirement.
Why QoS Matters
Not all network traffic has the same requirements.
A file transfer can often tolerate additional delay. A voice conversation cannot.
Interactive applications may require low latency, while bulk transfers may primarily need throughput. Network congestion can therefore affect different applications in very different ways.
QoS gives network designers and operators tools to make deliberate decisions about how traffic should be treated when network resources become constrained.
The key is understanding that QoS does not create bandwidth.
It allows the network to manage available resources more intelligently.
Audience
This course is designed for technical professionals who need a practical understanding of IP Quality of Service.
Ideal participants include:
- Network Engineers
- Broadband and Service Provider Technicians
- Network Administrators
- Network Operations personnel
- Network Design Engineers
- Technical Support personnel
- Systems and Test Engineers
- Network Management personnel
- Voice and Video networking personnel
- Technical Sales Engineers
- Technical Marketing personnel
- Individuals preparing for networking certifications
Course Prerequisites
Students should have a basic understanding of TCP/IP networking, IPv4 addressing, subnetting, and routing.
Previous QoS experience is not required.
Completion of introductory TCP/IP, IPv4, or CellStream 101-series training is helpful for students who are new to IP networking.
Because this is a hands-on course, students will use the CellStream router lab during the class.
Course Materials
Students receive:
- Course Student Guide
- Hands-On Lab Guide
- Access to the course router lab environment
- QoS configuration exercises
- Classification exercises
- Policing and shaping exercises
- Queuing and scheduling exercises
- QoS reference material
Course Outline
- Part 1: The Groundwork: Definition of QoS
- Part 2: Lab Preparation and MQC Overview
- Part 3: QoS Theory and Mechanisms
- Part 4: Classification Methods and Lab
- Part 5: Policing and Shaping Methods and Lab
- Part 6: Queuing Methods and Lab
- Part 7: Scheduling Methods and Lab
- Part 8: Integrated Services Architecture and RSVP
- Part 9: Differentiated Services Architecture
- Part 10: LAN QoS Overview
- Part 11: Traffic Engineering Overview
- Part 12: RTP and RTCP Overview
- Part 13: References and Summary
Why Take This Course?
QoS terminology can become complicated very quickly: classification, marking, policing, shaping, queuing, scheduling, RSVP, DiffServ, and traffic engineering.
CSI-HO-015 organizes these concepts into a practical framework.
Students leave the course better prepared to answer three important questions:
What traffic needs special treatment?
Which QoS mechanism should I use?
How can I verify that the policy is behaving as intended?
Related Training
This course is designed as a more focused QoS class for students who already have basic IP networking knowledge.
Students may continue into more advanced CellStream training involving:
- Advanced IPv4 networking
- IPv6
- MPLS
- Voice over IP
- Network troubleshooting
- Wireshark and packet analysis
Course Availability:
Contact us for schedule dates and times via our contact form or through the details provided on the page.
View the course calendar and browse for our schedule. It will show scheduled courses and available dates for scheduling.
Course Description, Content, Outline, and Instructional Design are Copyright ©CellStream, Inc.