User manual

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Actiontec Broadband Router User Manual
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Appendix A Quality of Service
Traffic Shaping
Traffic Shaping is the solution for managing and avoiding congestion where the
network meets limited broadband bandwidth. Typical networks use a 100 Mbps
Ethernet LAN with a 100 Mbps WAN interface router. This is where most bottle-
necks occur
A traffic shaper is essentially a regulated queue that accepts uneven and/or bursty
flows of packets and transmits them in a steady, predictable stream so that the net-
work is not overwhelmed with traffic. While traffic priority allows basic prioritiza-
tion of packets, traffic shaping provides more sophisticated definitions, such as:
• Bandwidth limit for each device
• Bandwidth limit for classes of rules
• Prioritization policy
• TCP serialization on a device
Additionally, QoS traffic shaping rules can be defined for a default device. These
rules will be used on a device that has no definitions of its own. This enables the
definition of QoS rules on the default WAN, for example, and their maintenance
even if the PPP or bridge device over the WAN is removed.
Device Traffic Shaping
This section describes the different Traffic Shaping screens and terms, and presents
the feature’s configuration logic.
1. Click Quality of Service at the top of the Home screen, then click Traffic
Shaping. The following screen appears.