© 2004 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. IPTX v Module Summary Quality of Service (QoS) is the ability of the network to provide better or special service to select users and applications. Converged networks create new requirements which create challenges for managing network traffic as voice, video, and data have very different requirements. A QoS Policy is a network-wide definition of the specific levels of quality of service assigned to classes of network traffic. The Differentiated Services model is highly scalable and offers the capability to define many different levels of service. IP networks use a variety of mechanisms to implement QoS including: classification, marking, congestion management, metering, traffic shaping, compression, and link efficiency.

© 2004 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. IPTX v Module Summary (Cont.) Modular QoS is a three-step, building block approach to implementing QoS in a network. Each class of traffic is defined in a class map module. A policy map module defines a traffic policy which configures the QoS features associated with a traffic class previously identified using a class map A service policy attaches a traffic policy configured with a policy map to an interface. QoS can be enabled on a network by a single command per interface using AutoQoS. AutoQoS works on a variety of Cisco routers and switches, and automatically configures and enables the mechanisms necessary for QoS.