Quality of Service (QoS) refers to a set of mechanisms and technologies used to control and prioritise network traffic. The aim is to ensure the performance of critical applications even when bandwidth is limited or network utilisation is high. In a network, all data is normally treated equally. However, during periods of heavy traffic, this can lead to delays, packet loss or fluctuations in transmission time. QoS ensures that time-critical data is transmitted as a priority, whilst less important data is processed in the background.
Key QoS parameters:
The quality of a network connection is determined by various factors:
QoS works by first classifying data traffic and tagging data packets. Network devices recognise these tags and prioritise certain data streams accordingly, ensuring that important applications are processed first. This helps to reduce delays and ensure stable connections, for example. For Quality of Service to function properly, the relevant mechanisms must be supported across the entire transmission path within the network. Typical areas of application include Voice over IP (VoIP), online gaming, video conferencing, streaming services and other real-time applications.
