Re: Network QoS support in applications

[Patrick McHardy <kaber@trash.net>]

Kalle Valo wrote:
> Patrick McHardy <kaber@trash.net> writes:
> 
>>> Solution 2: SO_PRIORITY with values 256-263
>> You can actually encode any class handle in SO_PRIORITY, all classful
>> qdiscs support classification based on this.
> 
> But what values should I use in an application? There seems to n+1
> different ways to do it, but they all would be specific to my own
> setup.

In case of classful qdisc classification, the values need to
match the class handles.

> I'm after a universal solution, so that there is no need to modify
> applications every time. I would assume that we have a set of rules
> for this. If not, we definitely need one.

Classful qdisc configuration is done by the administrator, so
there is no universal solution.

> Let's take a bittorrent client as an example. The traffic it generates
> is not important and it doesn't matter if bittorrent packets have
> lower priority compared to other streams. What SO_PRIORITY value
> should all bittorrent clients to use to mark their packets as low
> priority (for example background class from IEEE 802.1d Annex G).
> 
> Another example is a VoIP application. The packets need to have as low
> delay as possible, so they need to be prioritised very high (for
> example voice class from 802.1d). What value should such application
> use?

If the device is using the default pfifo_fast qdisc, you
can use values 6 and 7 to map to band 0 (highest priority),
0 and 8-15 to map to band 1 and 1-3 and 5 to map to band 2.

For manually set up qdisc hierarchies you need to ask the
user to specify a priority (or class handle) value.

> Or should applications use something else than SO_PRIORITY?
> 
> Any help is greatly welcomed here :)
>