QoS policies

A QoS policy bundles a set of network-quality rules — bandwidth caps, DSCP packet marking, and minimum-bandwidth reservations — and applies them to one or more network ports. The most common rule is a bandwidth limit (cap throughput on a port at 100 Mbps, say, to prevent a runaway workload from saturating shared uplinks).

DSCP marking adds priority hints to packets leaving a port — useful when downstream networks (your office, a partner network) honor DSCP for traffic shaping. Minimum-bandwidth reservations guarantee a port gets at least N Mbps even under contention — useful for telephony and real-time workloads.

For typical workloads, the default (no QoS policy) is fine. Apply policies when you have a specific shaping requirement — usually compliance, latency-sensitive workloads, or noisy-neighbor mitigation.

What's next

• Network ports — what QoS policies attach to.
• Networks and Subnets — the broader network model.