Understanding Classification and Marking

QoS Classification and Marking

© 2012 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. SPCORE v1.01—4-1
Objectives
• Describe classification and marking concepts
• Explain how traffic are typically classified into the different QoS service
classes
• Provide an example showing the mapping between the Enterprise and
Service Provider QoS service classes at the network edge
• Describe trust boundaries in enterprise and service provider
environments

© 2012 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. SPCORE v1.01—4-2
Classification and Marking
Classification:
• Identifying and categorizing traffic into different classes
• Without classification, all packets are treated the same
• Should be performed close to the network edge

Marking:
• "Coloring" packet using traffic descriptors
• Easily distinguish the marked packet belonging specific class
• Commonly used markers: CoS, DSCP, MPLS EXP

© 2012 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. SPCORE v1.01—4-3
Classification and Marking at the Data Link Layer
• Ethernet 802.1Q CoS define three bits—priority
• Eight different levels of priority (values 0–7)

Pream. SFD DA SA TPID TCI PT DATA FCS

PRI CFI VLAN ID

• MPLS header defines three EXP bits for QoS

Label Value EXP S Time to Live

© 2012 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. SPCORE v1.01—4-4
Classification and Marking at the Network Layer
Version ToS Len ID Flags/ TTL Proto FCS IP-SA IP-DA DATA
Length 1 byte Offset

7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0
Position of Bits

IP Precedence Unused IP Precedence (3 Bits)

DSCP ECN DiffServ (6 Bits)

• IP precedence: three most significant bits of ToS byte

• DSCP: six most significant bits of ToS byte
• DSCP is backward-compatible with IP precedence.

© 2012 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. SPCORE v1.01—4-5
QoS Service Class
• Logical grouping of packets that are to receive same level of applied
quality
• QoS service class can be:
- Single user (MAC address, IP address)
- Specific customer or set of customers
- Specific application or set of applications

Example of QoS service classes by set of applications:

Class 1
Voice Video Real Time

Class 2
Database ERP Mission Critical

Class 3
Web P2P Best Effort

© 2012 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. SPCORE v1.01—4-6
Models of Enterprise QoS Service Classes
• Three models are defined: 4- to 5-, 8-, and 11-class models
• More granularity in differentiation of traffic—more classes

4- or 5-Class Model 8-Class Model 11-Class Model

Voice Voice
Real Time
Interactive Video
Video
Streaming Video
Call Signaling Call Signaling Call Signaling
IP Routing
Network Control
Network Management
Critical Data Mission-Critical Data
Critical Data
Transactional Data
Bulk Data Bulk Data
Best Effort Best Effort Best Effort
Scavenger Scavenger Scavenger

© 2012 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. SPCORE v1.01—4-7
Layer 2 and Layer 3 Marking of Service Classes
Layer 2
Layer 3 Classification Classification
CoS / MPLS
Application IPP PHB DSCP EXP
Voice 5 EF 46 5
Interactive Video 4 AF41 34 4
Streaming Video 4 CS4 32 4
Call Signaling 3 CS3 24 3
IP Routing 6 CS6 48 6
Network Management 2 CS2 16 2
Mission-Critical Data 3 AF31 26 3
Transactional Data 2 AF21 18 2
Bulk Data 1 AF11 10 1
Best Effort 0 BE 0 0
Scavenger 1 CS1 8 1
© 2012 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. SPCORE v1.01—4-8
Service Provider QoS Service Classes
• Service provider service class types: edge and core
• Core service classes:
1. Core real time
2. Core critical data
3. Core best effort
• Edge service class models: Three to six service classes

Example of mapping between service provider core and edge:

Service Provider Service Provider
Edge Classes Core Classes
Real Time Core Real Time
Streaming (Video)
Critical Data Core Critical Data
Bulk Data
Best Effort Core Best Effort
© 2012 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. SPCORE v1.01—4-9
Enterprise-to-Service Provider Edge Traffic
Mapping
Four-Class Service
Application DSCP Provider Model
Voice EF Real Time
Streaming Video CS4 → CS2 (RTP, UDP) 30%
EF, CS2, AF2
Interactive Video AF4 → AF2
Call Signaling CS3 Critical 1
(TCP) 20%
IP Routing CS6 CS6, AF3, CS3
Mission-Critical Data AF3 → AF2
Critical 2
Transactional Data AF2 → AF3
(UDP) 20%
Network Management CS2 AF2, CS2
Bulk Data AF1
Best Effort
Scavenger CS1 30%
Best Effort BE BE

© 2012 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. SPCORE v1.01—4-10
Trust Boundaries
Network edge at which packets are trusted or not
• Packets are treated differently depending on whether they are confined
within boundary
• Where classification and marking should take place
• Where to enforce trust boundary?
Should be set as close as possible to the source

• Trust boundary exists from perspective of:

- Enterprise
- Service provider

© 2012 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. SPCORE v1.01—4-11
Enterprise Trust Boundary
As close as possible to the source of traffic:

1 2 3

PC IP Phone Access Switch

• Frames typically
unmarked
• When marked, may
be overwritten by IP
phone
• Phone marks voice • Marks traffic
as EF
• Remaps CoS to
• Re-marks PC traffic DSCP

© 2012 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. SPCORE v1.01—4-12
Service Provider Trust Boundary
• Separates enterprise and service provider QoS domains
• What is not trusted? Traffic class or traffic rate or both

Service Provider QoS Domain

CE PE P P PE CE
Managed CE Router

Enterprise Service Provider QoS Domain Enterprise

QoS Domain QoS Domain

CE PE P P PE CE
Unmanaged CE Router

© 2012 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. SPCORE v1.01—4-13
Summary
• Classifying packets into different classes is called classification, while
marking packets is important to easily distinguish packets
• QoS must be implemented consistently across the entire network
• Most service providers offer only a limited number of classes within their
MPLS VPN clouds
• The trust boundary differs depending on whether the CE device is
owned by the service provider or not.

© 2012 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. SPCORE v1.01—4-14
© 2012 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. SPCORE v1.01—4-15