DELL N3000 User Manual

Configuring Differentiated Services

This chapter describes how to configure the Differentiated Services 

(DiffServ) feature. DiffServ enables traffic to be classified into streams and 

given certain QoS treatment in accordance with defined per-hop behaviors.
The topics covered in this chapter include:

• DiffServ Overview
• Default DiffServ Values
• Configuring DiffServ (Web)
• Configuring DiffServ (CLI)
• DiffServ Configuration Examples

Standard IP-based networks are designed to provide “best effort” data delivery 

service. Best effort service implies that the network delivers the data in a 

timely fashion, although there is no guarantee that it will. During times of 

congestion, packets may be delayed, sent sporadically, or dropped. For typical 

Internet applications, such as email and file transfer, a slight degradation in 

service is acceptable and in many cases unnoticeable. Conversely, any 

degradation of service has undesirable effects on applications with strict 

timing requirements, such as voice or multimedia.