upper protocol ——DiffServ

DiffServ

DiffServ (Differentiated Services)

DiffServ is a QoS (Quality of Service) protocol for managing bandwidth allocation for Internet media connections (e.g. a VOIP voice connection).

• Nice overview here
• IETF Diffserv page

With low bandwidth lines, such as ADSL, users may feel jittering. Try to allow full upload bandwidth to eMule and do a phone call in G.711 in the same time, and you will surely understand what I mean.

Regarding Cisco docs, and others as well, the correct DiffServ value is EF (Expedited Forwarding) . The EF DiffServ also contains the ToS Low Delay bit , which is treated by many routers without any configuration. This is called PFIFO (Priority Fist In First Out, or FIFO with Priority).

The values you must know:

• EF DiffServ decimal: 184
• EF DiffServ hexadecimal: 0xb8
• EF DiffServ binary: 101110 00 (in red: DSCP field)
• EF DSCP decimal: 46
• EF DSCP hexadecimal: 0x2e
• EF DSCP binary: 101110

Remark: The DSCP field is contained within the 6 first bits of the DiffServ byte.

Here is the part where we getting crazy. Each constructor requires a different DiffServ or DSCP value.

• Alcatel OmniPCX Office - EF DiffServ binary : 10111000 DIFFSERV_PHB_EF
• Asterisk 1.0.9 (ie sip.conf) - EF DiffServ hexadecimal : tos = 0xb8
• Grandstream (requires FW 1.0.6.3 and older) - EF DSCP decimal : 46
• ZyXEL - EF DiffServ decimal : 184
• TELES - EF DiffServ decimal : 184

If any doubt, use a sniffer such as Wireshark (formerly Ethereal). If settings are correct, it will show the Differentiated Services Field in any of the RTP packets, whith a value of 0xb8 (DSCP 0x2e: Expedited Forwarding: ECN: 0x00) .

See also:

• http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/ps6610/products_white_paper09186a00800a3e2f.shtml
• http://www.protocols.com/pbook/tcpip2.htm
• QoS