The main interface default queues are created as part of the main interface creation.

When you apply a queuing policy to the main interface, it will override the default queuing and scheduling parameters for the traffic classes you have configured.

In the 8xVOQ mode, a P1+P2+6PN hierarchy is used for the main interface queues (default queuing and scheduling). The default queues are used for all traffic to the main interface and traffic to any sub-interface without a queuing policy applied. The control/protocol traffic uses traffic class 7 (TC7), priority 1 (P1) to avoid drops during congestion.

Each sub-interface supports up to three policies: an ingress policy, an egress marking policy, and an egress queuing policy. To create and configure a separate set of VoQs for a sub-interface, apply a queuing policy on that sub-interface. When you remove the sub-interface queuing policy, the associated VoQs are freed and the sub-interface traffic reverts to using the main interface VoQs.

Every network processor on the router has multiple slices (or pipelines), and every slice has a set of VOQs associated with every interface on the router. To maintain counters at high packet rates, two sets of counters are associated with each interface on each network slice. As an example, consider a device with six slices (12 interfaces), each with 24,000 VOQs, where you want both transmitted and dropped events counted. In this scenario, you would require 12 x 24, 000 x 2 = 5, 76,000 counters, which alone exceeds the counter capacity of the device.

It is to mitigate such a scenario that the router supports configurable sharing of VOQ counters. You can configure the sharing such that a counter is shared by {1,2,4,8} VOQs.

Each set of VoQs sharing counters has two counters that measure:

• Enqueued packets count in packets and bytes units.

• Dropped packets count in packets and bytes units.

For the feature to take effect:

• Delete egress queuing policy-map configuration from all interfaces.

• Run the command # reload location all to reload all the nodes on your router.

The dual queue limit option is added to queue-limit command on the CLI of your router and displays as discard-class. What the discard-class option does is give you the flexibility to configure two queue limits on a single policy map—one for high-priority traffic and the other for low-priority traffic. This option ensures that the high priority traffic flow continues unaffected (up to the derived threshold from the discard-class 0 queue-limit) while the low-priority traffic continues up to the lower threshold (per discard-class 1 queue-limit).

Tell Me More

You can configure the two queue limits per these details:

• One for flow that you mark as discard-class 0 (higher priority) on ingress via ingress-policy.

• second, for flow that you mark as discard-class 1 (lower priority) on ingress via ingress policy.

The discard-class 1 flow (for low-priority traffic) begins to drop when the queue length hits the size limit that you configured for discard-class 1. Conversely, the flow for discard-class 1 stops dropping when queue-length falls below its configured value.

As an example, consider this configuration:

policy-map egress_pol_dql
class tc7
  queue-limit discard-class 0 100 mbytes
  queue-limit discard-class 1 50 mbytes
  priority level 1
 !
 class class-default
  bandwidth remaining ratio 1
!
end-policy-map
!

Also consider the verification:

RP/0/RP0/CPU0:ios#
RP/0/RP0/CPU0:ios#show qos interface hundredGigE 0/0/0/30 output
NOTE:- Configured values are displayed within parentheses
Interface HundredGigE0/0/0/30 ifh 0xf000210  -- output policy
NPU Id:                        0
Total number of classes:       2
Interface Bandwidth:           100000000 kbps
Policy Name:                   egress_pol_dql
VOQ Base:                      464
Accounting Type:               Layer1 (Include Layer 1 encapsulation and above)
VOQ Mode:                      8
Shared Counter Mode:           1
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Level1 Class (HP1)                       =   tc7
Egressq Queue ID                         =   471 (HP1 queue)
Queue Max. BW.                           =   no max (default)
Discard Class 1 Threshold                =   25165824 bytes / 2 ms (50 mbytes)
Discard Class 0 Threshold                =   75497472 bytes / 5 ms (100 mbytes)
WRED not configured for this class
 
Level1 Class                             =   class-default
Egressq Queue ID                         =   464 (Default LP queue)
Queue Max. BW.                           =   no max (default)
Inverse Weight / Weight                  =   1 / (1)
TailDrop Threshold                       =   749568 bytes / 6 ms (default)
WRED not configured for this class

In the preceding example, there are two traffic flows that are marked as discard-class 0 (higher priority) and discard-class 1 (lower priority).

As long as the queue length of the two flows remains below 25165824 bytes (the threshold for discard-class 1), packets from both flows continue without any drops. When the queue length reaches 25165824 bytes, discard-class 1 packets are not enqueued, ensuring all remaining bandwidth is used for the higher priority flow (discard-class 0).

The higher priority flow drops only when the queue length reaches 75497472 bytes.

Note	This option protects the high-priority traffic from loss due to congestion, but not necessarily from latency due to congestion. These thresholds are derived from hardware-specific queue regions.

• You can enable or disable the feature on both line and fabric cards. But, you can't enable or disable the feature on just one card, either line or fabric card.

• Disabling the shutdown action for line cards has no effect on fabric cards.

• You can’t disable the shutdown action on fabric cards (FCs).

• The feature is supported only in Cisco 8000 Series Routers with Cisco Silicon One Q200 ASICs.

This section describes how to configure VOQ Watchdog.

Router# config
Router(config)# hw-module voq-watchdog cardshut disable
Router(config)# commit

Router# show running-config
hw-module voq-watchdog cardshut disable
end

LC/0/0/CPU0:Feb 22 09:16:56.090 UTC: npu_drvr[203]:
%FABRIC-NPU_DRVR-3-VOQ_HARDWARE_WATCHDOG : [7127] : npu[1]: hardware_watchdog.voq_error: VOQ slc:2 voqnum:19955 isinhbm:1 smscntxtnum:3 hbmcntxtnum:14 isstuck:1 nochangesec:64 rdptr:1728 wrptr:1735 avblcrdts:-16668 is_fabric:0

LC/0/0/CPU0:Feb 22 09:16:56.090 UTC: npu_drvr[203]:
%FABRIC-NPU_DRVR-3-VOQ_HARDWARE_WATCHDOG : [7127] : npu[1]:
hardware_watchdog.voq_error: VOQ Watchdog Action Handling Skipped Due to User Configuration

Syslog: RP/0/RP0/CPU0:Feb 22 09:16:47.721 UTC: npu_drvr[335]: %FABRIC-NPU_DRVR-3-ASIC_ERROR_ACTION : 
[7912] : npu[6]: HARD_RESET needed for hardware_watchdog.voq_error

Per default behavior, every network slice of an NPU is assigned a set of 4 or 8 Virtual Output Queues (VOQ) per destination port. With such an assignment, it’s challenging to ensure that the right amount of buffering is available via VOQs. With this configuration, the ingress traffic from various source ports on a slice (or pipeline) on an NPU destined to a destination port is assigned to a VOQ per slice. In other words, multiple source ports sending traffic to the same destination port use the same VOQ. However, when sending traffic to different destination ports, traffic is enqueued to different VOQs. This means that the traffic isn’t distributed equitably because each slice doesn’t get its fair share of the output queue bandwidth. In a scenario where one slice has two ports and another slice has only one port, the bandwidth drops for the ports sharing a slice, even though the two ports handle more traffic than the single port.

Consider the following example where two 100G ports—port-0 and port-1—that belong to the same slice (slice-0) are sending traffic to port-3 on the output queue (OQ). You have a 100G port on another slice (slice-1) on the same NPU that is also scheduled to send traffic to port-3. The ingress VOQ is shared between the two ports in slice-0, whereas the ingress VOQ in slice-1 is available exclusively for port-3. This arrangement results in port-0 and port-1 getting 25% of the buffer traffic, while port-3 receives 50% of the buffer traffic.

The fair VOQ feature solves this disparity in traffic distribution.

The fair VOQ feature tackles the default behavior that treats source ports on each NPU slice equally, regardless of the number of active source ports. It does so by redesigning the way bandwidth is allocated from the output queue. Rather than distributing bandwidth at a slice level, fair VOQ distributes bandwidth directly to the source ports. When you configure the command hw-module profile qos voq-mode and reload your router, the functionality creates a dedicated VOQ for every source port and destination port pair. This arrangement ensures that bandwidth available at the destination port for a given traffic class is distributed equally to all source ports requesting bandwidth.

Extending the preceding example to understand the fair VOQ functionality, there are now dedicated VOQs for each ingress port that connect to the port on the output queue. Thus, port-0 and port-1 now don’t share a VOQ, and port-3 has its VOQ as before, as shown in the following figure. This fair VOQ arrangement results in traffic queued on dedicated queues, thus improving the traffic performance.

You can configure fair VOQ for 8xVOQ mode (fair-8) and 4xVOQ mode (fair-4) using the following options in the hw-module profile qos voq-mode command:

• hw-module profile qos voq-mode fair-8

• hw-module profile qos voq-mode fair-4

You can also share VOQ statistics counters in both fair VOQ modes, as shown in the following table. (For details on why sharing counters is essential and how to configure counters sharing, see Sharing of VOQ Statistics Counters.)

The following table is a snapshot to outline the key differences between fair VOQs and slice or regular VOQs.

• The fair VOQ feature is supported on the Cisco 8202 router (12 QSFP56-DD 400G and 60 QSFP28 100G ports) and Cisco 8201-32FH router (32 QSFP-DD 400G ports).

• The following table details the maximum interfaces (with basic IPv4 configurations and no other scale configuration such as QoS policy, ACL, and subinterface configuration) allowed based on VOQ mode and sharing counter mode.

  Table 5. Maximum Interfaces Based on Fair VOQ Mode and Sharing Counter Mode

  VOQ Mode	Sharing Counter Mode	Maximum Interfaces for Cisco 8202	Maximum Interfaces for Cisco 8201-32FH
  fair-8	1	The router doesn't support this combination.	The router doesn't support this combination.
  fair-8	2	96 = 60 (100G) + 8x4 + 4 (400G) ==> you can configure only eight 400G interfaces in 4x10G or 4x25G breakout mode.	128 = 32x4 (4x10G or 4x25G - breakout on all 32 ports - 400G)
  fair-8	4	108 = 60 + 12 x 4 (breakout on all 12 ports - 400G)
  fair-4	1	96 = 60(100G) + 8x4 + 4 (400G) ==> you can configure only eight 400 G interfaces in 4x10G or 4x25G breakout mode.
  fair-4	2	108 = 60 + 12 x4 (breakout on all 12 ports - 400G)
  fair-4	4	108 = 60 + 12 x4 (breakout on all 12 ports - 400G)

  Note	We recommend using sharing counter mode 4 in breakout modes and sharing counter mode 2 for nonbreakout modes. If the counter usage of applications is high, sharing counter mode 2 is not supported.

  Note	Breakout mode isn’t supported on 100G interfaces.

• Ensure that you reload the router for the configuration to take effect.

• Layer 2 traffic isn’t supported in fair-voq mode (fair-4 and fair-8 ).

• Subinterface queueing isn’t supported. (This applies to bundle sub-interfaces as well). This means that you can’t attach egress service-policies that require dedicated VOQs. However, egress marking is supported for subinterfaces.

• ERSPAN mirroring traffic is not supported in fair-voq mode.

• hw-module profile stats voqs-sharing-counters 1 isn’t supported in fair-8 mode. Ensure that you configure hw-module profile voq sharing-counters 2 or hw-module profile voq sharing-counters 4 along with hw-module profile qos voq-mode fair-4 or hw-module profile qos voq-mode fair-8 before reloading the router.

• Breakout is supported only on 400G interfaces in fair-voq mode (both fair-4 and fair-8 ) on the Cisco 8202 router.

• src-interface and src-slice keywords in show controller npu stats are visible only when you configure the VOQ mode to either fair-8 or fair-4 .

To configure fair VOQ:

1. Configure sharing of VOQ statistics counters. This example configures 2 counters.

   Note	Configuring fair-8 mode without counter sharing may cause configuration failure or other unexpected behavior.

2. Configure fair VOQ mode. This example shows how to configure fair-8 mode.

3. Restart the router for the configuration to take effect.

4. You have successfully enabled the fair VOQ feature to ensure equitable traffic distribution between every source port and destination port pair.

/*Configure sharing of VOQ statistics counters; we're configuring 2 counters per queue*/
Router(config)#hw-module profile stats ?
  voqs-sharing-counters  Configure number of voqs (1, 2, 4) sharing counters
Router(config)#hw-module profile stats voqs-sharing-counters ?
  1  Counter for each queue
  2  2 Queues share counters
  4  4 Queues share counters
Router(config)#hw-module profile stats voqs-sharing-counters 2

/*Configure fair-voq mode; we're configuring fair-8 VOQ mode here*/
Router#config
Router(config)#hw-module profile qos voq-mode fair-8
Router(config)#commit
Router#reload location all

hw-module profile stats voqs-sharing-counters 2
!
hw-module profile qos voq-mode fair-8
!

Router#show controllers npu stats voq ingress interface hundredGigE 0/0/0/20 instance 0 location 0/RP0/CPU0

 
Interface Name        =   Hu0/0/0/20
Interface Handle      =      f000118
Location              =   0/RP0/CPU0
Asic Instance         =            0
Port Speed(kbps)      =    100000000
Local Port            =        local
Src Interface Name    =          ALL
VOQ Mode              =       Fair-8
Shared Counter Mode   =            2
       ReceivedPkts    ReceivedBytes   DroppedPkts     DroppedBytes
-------------------------------------------------------------------
TC_{0,1} = 11110           1422080         0               0              
TC_{2,3} = 0               0               0               0              
TC_{4,5} = 0               0               0               0              
TC_{6,7} = 0               0               0               0              
RP/0/RP0/CPU0:ios#

Packets satisfying the match criteria for a class accumulate in the queue reserved for the class until they are serviced. The queue-limit command is used to define the maximum threshold for a class. When the maximum threshold is reached, the enqueued packets to the class queue result in tail drop (packet drop).

Router# configure
Router(config)# policy-map test-qlimit-1
Router(config-pmap)# class qos-1
Router(config-pmap-c)# queue-limit 100 us
Router(config-pmap-c)# priority level 7
Router(config-pmap-c)# exit
Router(config-pmap)# exit

Router(config)# interface HundredGigE 0/6/0/18
Router(config-if)# service-policy output test-qlimit-1
Router(config-if)# commit

policy-map test-qlimit-1
 class qos-1
  queue-limit 100 us
  priority level 7
 !
 class class-default
 !
 end-policy-map
!

Router# show qos int hundredGigE 0/6/0/18 output

NOTE:- Configured values are displayed within parentheses
Interface HundredGigE0/6/0/18 ifh 0x3000220  -- output policy
NPU Id:                        3
Total number of classes:       2
Interface Bandwidth:           100000000 kbps
VOQ Base:                      11176
VOQ Stats Handle:              0x88550ea0
Accounting Type:               Layer1 (Include Layer 1 encapsulation and above)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Level1 Class (HP7)                       =   qos-1
Egressq Queue ID                         =   11177 (HP7 queue)
TailDrop Threshold                       =   1253376 bytes / 100 us (100 us)
WRED not configured for this class

Level1 Class                             =   class-default
Egressq Queue ID                         =   11176 (Default LP queue)
Queue Max. BW.                           =   101803495 kbps (default)
Queue Min. BW.                           =   0 kbps (default)
Inverse Weight / Weight                  =   1 (BWR not configured)
TailDrop Threshold                       =   1253376 bytes / 10 ms (default)
WRED not configured for this class
 

The random-detect command with the minimum threshold and maximum threshold keywords must be used to enable random early detection (RED).

Router# configure
Router(config)# policy-map red-abs-policy
Router(config-pmap)# class qos-1
Router(config-pmap-c)# random-detect <min threshold> <max threshold>
Router(config-pmap-c)# shape average percent 10
Router(config-pmap-c)# end-policy-map
Router(config)# commit
Router(config)# interface HundredGigE0/0/0/12
Router(config-if)# service-policy output red-abs-policy
Router(config-if)# commit

policy-map red-abs-policy
class tc7
  priority level 1
  queue-limit 75 mbytes
 !
 class tc6
  priority level 2
  queue-limit 75 mbytes
 !
 class tc5
  shape average 10 gbps
  queue-limit 75 mbytes
 !
 class tc4
  shape average 10 gbps
  queue-limit 75 mbytes
 !
 class tc3
  shape average 10 gbps
  queue-limit 75 mbytes
 !
 class tc2
  shape average 10 gbps
  queue-limit 75 mbytes
 !
 class tc1
  shape average 10 gbps
  random-detect ecn
  random-detect 100 mbytes 200 mbytes
 !
 class class-default
  shape average 10 gbps
  random-detect 100 mbytes 200 mbytes
 !
 end-policy-map
!
 
interface HundredGigE0/0/0/12
service-policy output red-abs-policy
shutdown
!

Router# show qos int hundredGigE 0/6/0/18 output

NOTE:- Configured values are displayed within parentheses
Interface HundredGigE0/0/0/12 ifh 0x3000220  -- output policy
NPU Id:                        3
Total number of classes:       2
Interface Bandwidth:           100000000 kbps
VOQ Base:                      11176
VOQ Stats Handle:              0x88550ea0
Accounting Type:               Layer1 (Include Layer 1 encapsulation and above)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Level1 Class                             =   qos-1
Egressq Queue ID                         =   11177 (LP queue)
Queue Max. BW.                           =   10082461 kbps (10 %)
Queue Min. BW.                           =   0 kbps (default)
Inverse Weight / Weight                  =   1 (BWR not configured)
Guaranteed service rate                  =   10000000 kbps
TailDrop Threshold                       =   12517376 bytes / 10 ms (default)

Default RED profile
RED Min. Threshold                      =   12517376 bytes (10 ms)
RED Max. Threshold                      =   12517376 bytes (10 ms)

Level1 Class                             =   class-default
Egressq Queue ID                         =   11176 (Default LP queue)
Queue Max. BW.                           =   101803495 kbps (default)
Queue Min. BW.                           =   0 kbps (default)
Inverse Weight / Weight                  =   1 (BWR not configured)
Guaranteed service rate                  =   50000000 kbps
TailDrop Threshold                       =   62652416 bytes / 10 ms (default)
WRED not configured for this class