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NAME

       PRIO - Priority qdisc

SYNOPSIS

       tc  qdisc ... dev dev ( parent classid | root) [ handle major: ] prio [
       bands bands ] [  priomap  band,band,band...   ]  [  estimator  interval
       timeconstant ]

DESCRIPTION

       The  PRIO  qdisc is a simple classful queueing discipline that contains
       an arbitrary number of classes of differing priority. The  classes  are
       dequeued in numerical descending order of priority. PRIO is a scheduler
       and never delays packets - it is a work-conserving  qdisc,  though  the
       qdiscs contained in the classes may not be.

       Very useful for lowering latency when there is no need for slowing down
       traffic.

ALGORITHM

       On creation with ’tc qdisc add’, a fixed number of  bands  is  created.
       Each  band is a class, although is not possible to add classes with ’tc
       qdisc add’, the number of bands to be created must instead be specified
       on the command line attaching PRIO to its root.

       When dequeueing, band 0 is tried first and only if it did not deliver a
       packet does PRIO try  band  1,  and  so  onwards.  Maximum  reliability
       packets  should therefore go to band 0, minimum delay to band 1 and the
       rest to band 2.

       As the PRIO qdisc itself will have minor number 0, band 0  is  actually
       major:1, band 1 is major:2, etc. For major, substitute the major number
       assigned to the qdisc on ’tc qdisc add’ with the handle parameter.

CLASSIFICATION

       Three methods are available to PRIO to determine in which band a packet
       will be enqueued.

       From userspace
              A  process with sufficient privileges can encode the destination
              class directly with SO_PRIORITY, see socket(7).

       with a tc filter
              A tc filter  attached  to  the  root  qdisc  can  point  traffic
              directly to a class

       with the priomap
              Based  on the packet priority, which in turn is derived from the
              Type of Service assigned to the packet.

       Only the priomap is specific to this qdisc.

QDISC PARAMETERS

       bands  Number of bands. If changed from the default of 3, priomap  must
              be updated as well.

       priomap
              The  priomap  maps  the  priority  of  a  packet to a class. The
              priority can either  be  set  directly  from  userspace,  or  be
              derived from the Type of Service of the packet.

              Determines how packet priorities, as assigned by the kernel, map
              to bands. Mapping occurs based on the TOS octet of  the  packet,
              which looks like this:

              0   1   2   3   4   5   6   7
              +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
              |           |               |   |
              |PRECEDENCE |      TOS      |MBZ|
              |           |               |   |
              +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+

              The four TOS bits (the ’TOS field’) are defined as:

              Binary Decimal  Meaning
              -----------------------------------------
              1000   8         Minimize delay (md)
              0100   4         Maximize throughput (mt)
              0010   2         Maximize reliability (mr)
              0001   1         Minimize monetary cost (mmc)
              0000   0         Normal Service

              As  there  is  1 bit to the right of these four bits, the actual
              value of the TOS field is double the  value  of  the  TOS  bits.
              Tcpdump  -v  -v shows you the value of the entire TOS field, not
              just the four bits. It is the value you see in the first  column
              of this table:

              TOS     Bits  Means                    Linux Priority    Band
              ------------------------------------------------------------
              0x0     0     Normal Service           0 Best Effort     1
              0x2     1     Minimize Monetary Cost   1 Filler          2
              0x4     2     Maximize Reliability     0 Best Effort     1
              0x6     3     mmc+mr                   0 Best Effort     1
              0x8     4     Maximize Throughput      2 Bulk            2
              0xa     5     mmc+mt                   2 Bulk            2
              0xc     6     mr+mt                    2 Bulk            2
              0xe     7     mmc+mr+mt                2 Bulk            2
              0x10    8     Minimize Delay           6 Interactive     0
              0x12    9     mmc+md                   6 Interactive     0
              0x14    10    mr+md                    6 Interactive     0
              0x16    11    mmc+mr+md                6 Interactive     0
              0x18    12    mt+md                    4 Int. Bulk       1
              0x1a    13    mmc+mt+md                4 Int. Bulk       1
              0x1c    14    mr+mt+md                 4 Int. Bulk       1
              0x1e    15    mmc+mr+mt+md             4 Int. Bulk       1

              The  second  column  contains the value of the relevant four TOS
              bits, followed by their  translated  meaning.  For  example,  15
              stands  for  a  packet  wanting  Minimal  Monetary Cost, Maximum
              Reliability, Maximum Throughput AND Minimum Delay.

              The fourth column lists the way the Linux kernel interprets  the
              TOS bits, by showing to which Priority they are mapped.

              The  last column shows the result of the default priomap. On the
              command line, the default priomap looks like this:

                  1, 2, 2, 2, 1, 2, 0, 0 , 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1

              This means that priority 4, for example,  gets  mapped  to  band
              number 1.  The priomap also allows you to list higher priorities
              (> 7) which do not correspond to TOS mappings, but which are set
              by other means.

              This table from RFC 1349 (read it for more details) explains how
              applications might very well set their TOS bits:

              TELNET                   1000           (minimize delay)
              FTP
                      Control          1000           (minimize delay)
                      Data             0100           (maximize throughput)

              TFTP                     1000           (minimize delay)

              SMTP
                      Command phase    1000           (minimize delay)
                      DATA phase       0100           (maximize throughput)

              Domain Name Service
                      UDP Query        1000           (minimize delay)
                      TCP Query        0000
                      Zone Transfer    0100           (maximize throughput)

              NNTP                     0001           (minimize monetary cost)

              ICMP
                      Errors           0000
                      Requests         0000 (mostly)
                      Responses        <same as request> (mostly)

CLASSES

       PRIO classes cannot be configured  further  -  they  are  automatically
       created when the PRIO qdisc is attached. Each class however can contain
       yet a further qdisc.

BUGS

       Large amounts of traffic in the lower bands  can  cause  starvation  of
       higher  bands. Can be prevented by attaching a shaper (for example, tc-
       tbf(8) to these bands to make sure they cannot dominate the link.

AUTHORS

       Alexey   N.   Kuznetsov,   <kuznet@ms2.inr.ac.ru>,    J   Hadi    Salim
       <hadi@cyberus.ca>. This manpage maintained by bert hubert <ahu@ds9a.nl>