HP-UX IPQoS A.01.00 Programmer's Guide (October 2005)

Overview
Introduction
Chapter 112
Introduction
This section briefly describes HP-UX IPQoS and its architecture. It also provides an
introduction to the HP-UX IPQoS API, including a structural and functional overview.
Introduction to HP-UX IPQoS (Background Information)
HP-UX IPQoS provides, for outgoing traffic on HP-UX hosts, traffic conditioning
(transmission prioritization for specified traffic classes) as well as DSCP (Differentiated
Services Code Point) marking and VLAN-priority marking. An HP-UX IPQoS configuration
can be loaded into the kernel either by using ipqosadmin to load a valid configuration file, or
through user-applications that utilize the HP-UX IPQoS API included with the product.
An HP-UX IPQoS configuration contains user-supplied definitions of traffic classes (filters)
and traffic-handling instructions (policies) that are assigned to configured adapters.
Note the following general properties about filters, policies and adapters:
• The purpose of a filter is to identify a certain class of traffic (based on characteristics such
as transport port number, destination IP address, etc.) on a network interface.
• The purpose of a policy is to define what action to perform on a class of traffic (such as
reserving bandwidth, DiffServ Code Point (DSCP) marking, VLAN priority marking, etc.).
• Adapters represent LAN devices on the system on which HP-UX IPQoS policies can be
enforced.
• A filter can be attached to multiple policies, but can only be attached to one policy per
adapter.
• A filter is meaningful only when it is associated with a policy. Likewise, a policy is only
meaningful when it is associated with an adapter and has one or more filters associated
with it.
• An adapter may or may not have policies attached to it. For adapters that do not have any
associated policies, no HP-UX IPQoS controls are performed on their traffic.
For general (non-API specific) information on HP-UX IPQoS refer to the HP-UX IPQoS
A.01.00 Administrator’s Guide, which can be found online at:
http://www.docs.hp.com/en/netcom.html#IPQoS