Enforcement
In QoS, the information learned in the classification stage is used along with current network conditions, such as congestion level, to determine how to handle the packets.
Policing can involve many techniques, including packet drop, various flavors of queuing, traffic shaping and TCP rate shaping.
However, the heavy queuing of real-time traffic such as video or voice over IP can make things worse because of increased latency and jitter. Fortunately, some implementations let you control the queue depth.
The purpose of enforcement is threefold -- to prioritize one type of traffic over another, to avoid congestion by preventing or delaying the transmission of low-priority traffic across a network connection, and to control the rate at which individual streams and hosts are transmitting.
Also known as policing.
From Stages of network QoS, Network World, 06/03/02.
Additional resources
Searching for QoS Holy Grail
Review of QoS products. Network World, 06/03/02.
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