Quality of Service

  • Article

Applies To: Windows 7, Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Vista

Policy-based QoS in Windows Server® 2008 allows you to define the priority of traffic, negotiate finer service levels with bandwidth providers, and control bandwidth costs.

QoS policies are applied to a user login session or a computer as part of a Group Policy object (GPO) that is linked to an Active Directory container such as a domain, site, or organizational unit (OU).

Policy-based QoS allows you to:

  • Define the priority of traffic: You can configure a QoS policy to mark outbound network traffic by using a specific Differentiated Services Code Point (DSCP) value, as defined in RFC 2474.

  • Manage the use of bandwidth: You can configure a QoS policy with a throttle rate for outbound traffic. With throttling, the QoS components limit the aggregate outgoing network traffic that matches the QoS policy settings to a specified rate.

QoS Resources

Policy-based Quality of Service (QoS)

This guide describes how to prioritize network traffic by configuring Policy-based QoS, and provides business-based scenarios. Additionally, this guide provides a reference for QoS error and event messages.

Content availability: Policy-based Quality of Service (QoS) is available on the Web in the Windows Server 2008 and Windows Server 2008 R2 Technical Library.

Overview of Policy-Based QoS

This HTML topic provides introductory information about defining QoS policies by using Group Policy.

Content availability: Overview of Policy-Based QoS is available on the Web in the Windows Server 2008 and Windows Server 2008 R2 Technical Library, at https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=153372.

New Networking Features in Windows Server 2008 and Windows Vista

The Policy-based QoS for Enterprise Networks section in the New Networking Features in Windows Server 2008 and Windows Vista Provides an introduction to the new features in QoS that are new in Windows Server 2008 and Windows Vista.

Content availability: New Networking Features in Windows Server 2008 and Windows Vista is available on the Web in the Windows Server 2008 and Windows Server 2008 R2 Technical Library, at https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=117650.

QoS in the Windows Core Networking Blog

The QoS section in the Windows Core Networking Blog provides information about QoS features in Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows 7.

Content availability: The Windows Core Networking Blog is available on the Web at https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=153374.

Quality of Service Technologies and Solutions

The Quality of Service Technologies and Solutions section in the Microsoft TechNet, Networking and Access Technologies site provides links to additional QoS resources.

Content availability: The Quality of Service Technologies and Solutions resource is available on TechNet at https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=131686.