HP UX IPQos Software Introduction to HP-UXIPQoS (Background Information), Chapter, Introduction, Introduction

Overview

Introduction

Introduction

This section briefly describes HP-UX IPQoS and its architecture. It also provides an introduction to the HP-UX IPQoS API, including a structural and functional overview.

Introduction to HP-UX IPQoS (Background Information)

HP-UX IPQoS provides, for outgoing traffic on HP-UX hosts, traffic conditioning (transmission prioritization for specified traffic classes) as well as DSCP (Differentiated Services Code Point) marking and VLAN-priority marking. An HP-UX IPQoS configuration can be loaded into the kernel either by using ipqosadmin to load a valid configuration file, or through user-applications that utilize the HP-UX IPQoS API included with the product.

An HP-UX IPQoS configuration contains user-supplied definitions of traffic classes (filters) and traffic-handling instructions (policies) that are assigned to configured adapters.

Note the following general properties about filters, policies and adapters:

•The purpose of a filter is to identify a certain class of traffic (based on characteristics such as transport port number, destination IP address, etc.) on a network interface.

•The purpose of a policy is to define what action to perform on a class of traffic (such as reserving bandwidth, DiffServ Code Point (DSCP) marking, VLAN priority marking, etc.).

•Adapters represent LAN devices on the system on which HP-UX IPQoS policies can be enforced.

•A filter can be attached to multiple policies, but can only be attached to one policy per adapter.

•A filter is meaningful only when it is associated with a policy. Likewise, a policy is only meaningful when it is associated with an adapter and has one or more filters associated with it.

•An adapter may or may not have policies attached to it. For adapters that do not have any associated policies, no HP-UX IPQoS controls are performed on their traffic.

For general (non-API specific) information on HP-UX IPQoS refer to the HP-UX IPQoS A.01.00 Administrator’s Guide, which can be found online at:

http://www.docs.hp.com/en/netcom.html#IPQoS

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