The last piece of Traffic Management is shaping. Shaping is a process that attempts to mold the traffic flow to meet the agreed upon bandwidth and burst limits. It should be done by the service user but can also be done by the service provider on the user’s behalf.
That’s the topic of this third and last white paper in this white paper series on Traffic Management. The first two white papers in this three-part series discussed port scheduling and policing.
But deploying these shaping functions comes with a set of challenges. Choosing the correct values for the numerous parameters is an obvious challenge. Each decision comes with its own issues and tradeoffs. Implementing support for the functions in the switching ASICs and network processors provides the next set of challenges. Monitoring the results, ensuring that the network is operating correctly, and meeting the QoS commitments to the users also requires implementation of appropriate tools and techniques.
This white paper includes:
- How shaping is done
- Where shaping is done
- Problems caused by shapers
- Important problem solved by a shaper
Developing these shaping functions requires both network design knowledge and implementation expertise. IP Infusion Innovations has an experienced team of software engineers that has helped many clients with network device design and implementation. In addition, IP Infusion is a development partner with several major switching device (ASICs and Network Processors) vendors such as Broadcom and Cavium.
If you are developing a network device that includes packet switching (Ethernet switching, routing, etc.) and need help designing and implementing the embedded software for the product, IP Infusion’s software development team can help.