Quality of Service

Yaser Rahmati | یاسر رحمتی

Quality of Service (QoS) is a set of techniques used to manage network traffic to reduce latency, jitter, and packet loss, ensuring a higher priority for critical applications. In MikroTik, QoS can be implemented using features like Queue Trees, Simple Queues, and HTB (Hierarchical Token Bucket).

1. Understanding QoS Concepts in MikroTik

Before diving into configuration, it’s important to understand some key concepts:

  • Bandwidth: The maximum rate at which data can be transferred over a network path.

  • Latency: The time it takes for data to travel from the source to the destination.

  • Jitter: The variation in packet arrival times.

  • Prioritization: Assigning different priorities to different types of traffic, ensuring critical traffic (like VoIP) gets higher priority over less critical traffic (like file downloads).

  • Queuing: Organizing traffic in queues to manage bandwidth and prioritize certain types of traffic.

2. QoS Features in MikroTik

  • Simple Queues: Used for managing bandwidth per IP address or per service. It’s easy to set up and useful for small networks.

  • Queue Trees: More advanced, allowing you to create multiple queues under a single parent, giving you fine-grained control over traffic prioritization and bandwidth allocation.

  • PCQ (Per Connection Queuing): Useful for managing bandwidth for multiple users or connections, providing equal bandwidth distribution.

3. Practical Example: Setting Up QoS in MikroTik

Scenario:

You want to implement QoS on your MikroTik router to prioritize VoIP traffic, ensuring it gets the bandwidth it needs, while limiting the bandwidth available to less critical services like file downloads.

Step 1: Identify Traffic

First, identify the types of traffic you want to prioritize. For this example:

  • VoIP Traffic: Use UDP and typically works on ports like 5060 (SIP) and 10000-20000 (RTP).

  • Web Browsing (HTTP/HTTPS): Uses TCP ports 80 and 443.

  • File Downloads: Use TCP and can be identified by ports like 20, 21 (FTP), or based on known download servers.

Step 2: Create Mangle Rules to Mark Traffic

Mangle rules in MikroTik are used to mark packets. These marks are then used in Queue Trees to prioritize traffic.

  1. Open Winbox and Connect to Your Router.

  2. Navigate to IP -> Firewall -> Mangle.

Rule 1: Mark VoIP Traffic

  • Chain: prerouting

  • Protocol: UDP

  • Dst. Port: 5060

  • Action: mark-packet

  • New Packet Mark: voip

  • Comment: "Mark VoIP traffic"

Steps:

  1. Click on the "+" sign to add a new rule.

  2. Set the Chain to prerouting.

  3. Set the Protocol to UDP.

  4. Set the Dst. Port to 5060.

  5. Go to the Action tab, set Action to mark-packet, and name the new packet mark voip.

  6. Add a comment and click OK.

Rule 2: Mark HTTP/HTTPS Traffic

  • Chain: prerouting

  • Protocol: TCP

  • Dst. Port: 80,443

  • Action: mark-packet

  • New Packet Mark: http

  • Comment: "Mark HTTP/HTTPS traffic"

Steps:

  1. Click on the "+" sign to add a new rule.

  2. Set the Chain to prerouting.

  3. Set the Protocol to TCP.

  4. Set the Dst. Port to 80,443.

  5. Go to the Action tab, set Action to mark-packet, and name the new packet mark http.

  6. Add a comment and click OK.

Rule 3: Mark Other Traffic

For all other traffic, you can create a more general rule.

  • Chain: prerouting

  • Action: mark-packet

  • New Packet Mark: other

  • Comment: "Mark other traffic"

Steps:

  1. Click on the "+" sign to add a new rule.

  2. Set the Chain to prerouting.

  3. Go to the Action tab, set Action to mark-packet, and name the new packet mark other.

  4. Add a comment and click OK.

Step 3: Create Queue Trees

Now that traffic is marked, you can create Queue Trees to allocate bandwidth and prioritize traffic.

  1. Navigate to Queues -> Queue Tree.

Queue 1: Prioritize VoIP Traffic

  • Name: VoIP

  • Parent: global

  • Packet Mark: voip

  • Priority: 1 (Highest priority)

  • Max Limit: 2M (2 Mbps)

Steps:

  1. Click on the "+" sign to add a new queue.

  2. Set the Name to VoIP.

  3. Set the Parent to global.

  4. Set the Packet Mark to voip.

  5. Set the Priority to 1.

  6. Set the Max Limit to 2M.

  7. Click OK.

Queue 2: Allocate Bandwidth for HTTP/HTTPS Traffic

  • Name: HTTP

  • Parent: global

  • Packet Mark: http

  • Priority: 4

  • Max Limit: 5M (5 Mbps)

Steps:

  1. Click on the "+" sign to add a new queue.

  2. Set the Name to HTTP.

  3. Set the Parent to global.

  4. Set the Packet Mark to http.

  5. Set the Priority to 4.

  6. Set the Max Limit to 5M.

  7. Click OK.

Queue 3: Limit Bandwidth for Other Traffic

  • Name: Other

  • Parent: global

  • Packet Mark: other

  • Priority: 8 (Lowest priority)

  • Max Limit: 1M (1 Mbps)

Steps:

  1. Click on the "+" sign to add a new queue.

  2. Set the Name to Other.

  3. Set the Parent to global.

  4. Set the Packet Mark to other.

  5. Set the Priority to 8.

  6. Set the Max Limit to 1M.

  7. Click OK.

Step 4: Apply and Monitor

  • Ensure all your mangle rules and queue trees are active.

  • Monitor the traffic to ensure that VoIP traffic is prioritized, HTTP/HTTPS traffic is handled appropriately, and other traffic is limited as per the configuration.

4. Monitoring QoS

You can monitor the performance of your queues by going to the Queues section in Winbox. Here, you can see real-time data on how much bandwidth is being used by each queue and adjust the settings if necessary.

5. Advanced QoS Techniques

  • PCQ: If you need to distribute bandwidth equally among multiple users, consider using PCQ.

  • Burst: You can configure burst settings to allow temporary speed increases for users.

  • Dynamic Queues: If your network requires more dynamic handling of traffic, you can set up dynamic queues based on active connections.

Summary

Implementing QoS on a MikroTik router involves identifying the critical types of traffic, marking them using Mangle rules, and then using Queue Trees to prioritize and allocate bandwidth accordingly. This ensures that important services like VoIP receive the necessary bandwidth while less critical traffic is controlled to avoid congestion.

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