Quality of Service

Quality of Service (QoS) is a set of technologies for managing network traffic in a cost effective manner to enhance user experiences for home and enterprise environments. QoS technologies allow you to measure bandwidth, detect changing network conditions (such as congestion or availability of bandwidth), and prioritize or throttle traffic. For example, QoS technologies can be applied to prioritize traffic for latency-sensitive applications (such as voice or video) and to control the impact of latency-insensitive traffic (such as bulk data transfers).

This page contains links to resources about QoS support in Microsoft Windows.

Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008

• Windows Vista Policy Based QoS
  This white paper describes Policy-based QoS, the new feature to manage network bandwidth through Group Policy settings.
• Policy-Based Quality of Service
  This topic describes how to configure Group Policy-based QoS settings in Windows Server 2008 and Windows Server 2008 R2 to prioritize and manage network traffic. This topic also describes how to configure URL-based QoS, which is a new feature in Windows Server 2008 R2.
• QoS Support in Windows
  This TechNet Cable Guy article in TechNet Magazine describes QoS support in current and future versions of Windows.
• Managing Network Bandwidth with Windows Vista
  This TechNet WebCast describes how Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 provide more efficient data transfers and effective network management.
• Policy-based QoS Architecture in Windows Server 2008 and Windows Vista
  This TechNet Cable Guy article discusses the architectural details of Policy-based QoS.
• Quality Windows Audio-Video Experience – qWAVE
  This white paper describes the Quality Windows Audio-Video Experience (qWAVE), the QoS support for audio-video scenarios on home networks for Windows Vista, and provides guidelines for independent hardware vendors (IHVs) and independent software vendors (ISVs).
• LLTO and QoS for Media Experiences
  This Web page contains resources that describe how the Link Layer Topology Discovery (LLTD) protocol operates over wired (802.3 Ethernet) and wireless (802.11) media to enable quality media streaming experiences, even on networks with limited bandwidth.

Windows XP and Windows Server 2003

• QoS Support in Windows
  This TechNet Cable Guy article in TechNet Magazine describes QoS support in current and future versions of Windows.
• Windows XP Quality of Service (QoS) enhancements and behavior
  This Microsoft Knowledge Base article describes how Windows XP uses QoS over modems, for Internet Connection Sharing, and for remote access.
• Quality of Service (QoS)
  This is the full set of product documentation for QoS that is provided with Windows Server 2003.
• QoS Technical Reference
  This section of the Windows Server 2003 Technical Reference contains in-depth technical information about QoS support in Windows Server 2003.

Developer Resources

• Quality Windows Audio/Video Experience (qWAVE)
  Learn how to develop applications that use the new qWAVE capabilities in Windows Vista.
• Network Quality of Service (QoS/qWAVE) MSDN Forum
  Ask questions or share information through this MSDN forum on the QoS and qWAVE APIs.

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