Congestion management features allow you to control congestion by determining the order in which a traffic flow (or packets) is sent out an interface based on priorities assigned to packets. Congestion management entails the creation of queues, assignment of packets to those queues based on the classification of the packet, and scheduling of the packets in a queue for transmission.

The types of traffic regulation mechanisms supported are:

• Class-based Weighted Fair Queueing

• Low-Latency Queueing with Strict Priority Queueing

• Traffic Shaping

• Traffic Policing

Class-based Weighted Fair Queueing (CBWFQ) allows definition of traffic classes based on customer match criteria. With CBWFQ you can define traffic classes and assign guaranteed amount of minimum bandwidth to them. CBWFQ also allows for a strict priority queue for delay-sensitive traffic.

The Low-Latency Queueing (LLQ) feature brings strict priority queuing (PQ) to the CBWFQ scheduling mechanism. Priority Queueing (PQ) in strict priority mode ensures that one type of traffic is sent, possibly at the expense of all others. For PQ, a low-priority queue can be detrimentally affected, and, in the worst case, never allowed to send its packets if a limited amount of bandwidth is available or the transmission rate of critical traffic is high.

Traffic shaping allows you to control the traffic flow exiting an interface to match its transmission to the speed of the remote target interface and ensure that the traffic conforms to policies contracted for it. Traffic adhering to a particular profile can be shaped to meet downstream requirements, thereby eliminating bottlenecks in topologies with data-rate mismatches.

Note	Traffic shaping is supported only in egress direction.

Traffic policing allows you to control the maximum rate of traffic sent or received on an interface and to partition a network into multiple priority levels or class of service (CoS).Traffic policing manages the maximum rate of traffic through a token bucket algorithm. The token bucket algorithm uses user-configured values to determine the maximum rate of traffic allowed on an interface at a given moment in time. The token bucket algorithm is affected by all traffic entering or leaving the interface (depending on where the traffic policy with traffic policing is configured) and is useful in managing network bandwidth in cases where several large packets are sent in the same traffic stream. By default, the configured bandwidth value takes into account the Layer 2 encapsulation that is applied to traffic leaving the interface.

Traffic policing also provides a certain amount of bandwidth management by allowing you to set the burst size (Bc) for the committed information rate (CIR). See, Committed Bursts and Excess Bursts.

The router supports the following traffic policing mode(s):

• Single-Rate Two-Color (SR2C) in color-blind mode. See Single-Rate Policer.

• Single-Rate Three-Color (SR3C) in color-blind mode.

• Two-Rate Three-Color (2R3C) in color-blind mode. See Two-Rate Policer .

The committed burst (bc) parameter of the police command implements the first, conforming (green) token bucket that the router uses to meter traffic. The bc parameter sets the size of this token bucket. Initially, the token bucket is full and the token count is equal to the committed burst size (CBS). Thereafter, the meter updates the token counts the number of times per second indicated by the committed information rate (CIR).

The following describes how the meter uses the conforming token bucket to send packets:

• If sufficient tokens are in the conforming token bucket when a packet arrives, the meter marks the packet green and decrements the conforming token count by the number of bytes of the packet.

• If there are insufficient tokens available in the conforming token bucket, the meter allows the traffic flow to borrow the tokens needed to send the packet. The meter checks the exceeding token bucket for the number of bytes of the packet. If the exceeding token bucket has a sufficient number of tokens available, the meter marks the packet.

  Green and decrements the conforming token count down to the minimum value of 0.

  Yellow, borrows the remaining tokens needed from the exceeding token bucket, and decrements the exceeding token count by the number of tokens borrowed down to the minimum value of 0.

• If an insufficient number of tokens is available, the meter marks the packet red and does not decrement either of the conforming or exceeding token counts.

  Note

  When the meter marks a packet with a specific color, there must be a sufficient number of tokens of that color to accommodate the entire packet. Therefore, the volume of green packets is never smaller than the committed information rate (CIR) and committed burst size (CBS). Tokens of a given color are always used on packets of that color.

The excess burst (be) parameter of the police command implements the second, exceeding (yellow) token bucket that the router uses to meter traffic. The exceeding token bucket is initially full and the token count is equal to the excess burst size (EBS). Thereafter, the meter updates the token counts the number of times per second indicated by the committed information rate (CIR).

The following describes how the meter uses the exceeding token bucket to send packets:

• When the first token bucket (the conforming bucket) meets the committed burst size (CBS), the meter allows the traffic flow to borrow the tokens needed from the exceeding token bucket. The meter marks the packet yellow and then decrements the exceeding token bucket by the number of bytes of the packet.

• If the exceeding token bucket does not have the required tokens to borrow, the meter marks the packet red and does not decrement the conforming or the exceeding token bucket. Instead, the meter performs the exceed-action configured in the police command (for example, the policer drops the packets).

The committed token bucket can hold bytes up to the size of the committed burst (bc) before overflowing. This token bucket holds the tokens that determine whether a packet conforms to or exceeds the CIR as the following describes:

• A traffic stream is conforming when the average number of bytes over time does not cause the committed token bucket to overflow. When this occurs, the token bucket algorithm marks the traffic stream green.

• A traffic stream is exceeding when it causes the committed token bucket to overflow into the peak token bucket. When this occurs, the token bucket algorithm marks the traffic stream yellow. The peak token bucket is filled as long as the traffic exceeds the police rate.

The peak token bucket can hold bytes up to the size of the peak burst (be) before overflowing. This token bucket holds the tokens that determine whether a packet violates the PIR. A traffic stream is violating when it causes the peak token bucket to overflow. When this occurs, the token bucket algorithm marks the traffic stream red.

For example, if a data stream with a rate of 250 kbps arrives at the two-rate policer, and the CIR is 100 kbps and the PIR is 200 kbps, the policer marks the packet in the following way:

• 100 kbps conforms to the rate

• 100 kbps exceeds the rate

• 50 kbps violates the rate

The router updates the tokens for both the committed and peak token buckets in the following way:

• The router updates the committed token bucket at the CIR value each time a packet arrives at the interface. The committed token bucket can contain up to the committed burst (bc) value.

• The router updates the peak token bucket at the PIR value each time a packet arrives at the interface. The peak token bucket can contain up to the peak burst (be) value.

• When an arriving packet conforms to the CIR, the router takes the conform action on the packet and decrements both the committed and peak token buckets by the number of bytes of the packet.

• When an arriving packet exceeds the CIR, the router takes the exceed action on the packet, decrements the committed token bucket by the number of bytes of the packet, and decrements the peak token bucket by the number of overflow bytes of the packet.

• When an arriving packet exceeds the PIR, the router takes the violate action on the packet, but does not decrement the peak token bucket.

See Two-Rate Policer.