Classification and Marking Design Principles
The first fundamental design principle is that QoS policies should always be enabled in hardware whenever possible. Some Cisco routers perform QoS in software, and such behavior can increase the load on the CPU. Cisco Catalyst switches have dedicated hardware called application-specific integrated circuits (ASIC), which are used to perform QoS operations. Switches can perform complex QoS policies under maximum traffic load without any marginal CPU spike. Some platforms, such as the Cisco ASR, can perform QoS operations (such as queuing) in dedicated hardware ASICs, but other functions (such as deep packet inspection) are still processed in software via the CPU.
Based on design recommendations, classification and marking should be done closest to the source of traffic as administratively and technically possible. This design principle promotes DiffServ and per-hop behaviors (PHB) as the recommended end-to-end design.
As a rule, it is not recommended to trust markings set by end users leveraging PCs or other endpoint devices. End users can intentionally or unintentionally abuse QoS policies that trust markings of end devices. If users and unclassified applications take advantage of the configured QoS policy as a result of trusting end devices, this can result in easily starving priority queues with nonpriority traffic, ruining quality of service for real-time applications. However, if QoS markings for end devices and associated applications are administered centrally across the enterprise, this can be an acceptable design option. An additional area of exception might also include wireless devices that can leverage Wireless Multimedia (WMM) QoS provisioning in the upstream direction.
The next important recommendation is to use Differentiated Services Code Point (DSCP) marking whenever technically possible. DSCP markings are the recommended method for marking IP traffic for the following reasons:
It has support for end-to-end Layer 3 marking.
It is a more granular method of marking that supports 64 levels as compared to class of service (CoS) and MPLS Experimental EXP, which have 8 levels.
It is more extensible than Layer 2 markings as these markings are lost when media changes.
To provide interoperability on the border between enterprise and service provider networks, you should use standard-based DSCP PHB markings because the use of such markings can streamline interoperability and compliance with service provider classes of service. Classification and marking design principles covered in this section are illustrated in Figure 16-1.
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Figure 16-1 QoS Classification and Marking Architecture