Network traffic is often compared to highway traffic. The flow of cars over a limited roadway has variations in usage and congestion. In a similar fashion, one of the tools to manage virtual congestion is queueing. Cars line up and wait according to their order of arrival. Some vehicles have priority over others based on importance, such as police or ambulances. Without order to the queueing, traffic would only get worse. Virtual congestion is a common issue found by IT Companies in Ottawa.
In networks, similar principles apply. In times of light traffic, data packets are sent out of the network interface as soon as they arrive. There is no congestion and no problem. However, issues arise when packets arrive at the interface more quickly than they can be sent out. The accumulation of packets causes congestion and they must be managed by queues. Queuing is one aspect of a Quality of Service (QoS) strategy used by companies that deliver Ottawa computer services.
Companies that provide computer services, offer clients a series of queueing types which can be used to manage network traffic.
First-in, First-out Queuing
First-in, first-out is the simplest queue type. There is no priority or class. The packets are sent out in the order in which they arrive. To continue the analogy, the commuter car and the ambulance have the same priority in this queue.
Weighted Fair Queuing
WFQ considers the size of the packet within each of the data flows. In fair queuing, the packets with the shorter finish time will be sent from their flow first. The next packets will be sent so that each flow gets equal capacity. Weighting assigns an importance to each of the flows. A higher weight allows more packets to be sent in the same amount of time.
Custom Queuing
Custom queuing can specify the number of packets to be drawn from the queue. Packets are sent from one flow until the limit is reached, and then the next flow is sent. CQ allocates bandwidth proportionally for each different traffic class. There are 16 queues that can be configured by classification.
Priority Queuing
As the name suggests, classes are prioritized. Packets of a higher priority class will always be sent out before lower priority class packets. Prioritized traffic, often real-time streaming or Voice over IP, is ensured timely delivery.
Congestion Management
These types are just a few of the top examples in use by IT companies in Ottawa. There are other types and sub-types available to manage network traffic. One or multiple queueing strategies may be implemented to manage traffic and improve QoS. Determine your objectives based on your current traffic and application mix. These factors will help you, your network administrator, and IT support companies in Ottawa to manage and test your queueing strategy.