Quality of service

Gigabit Ethernet offers built-in quality-of-service mechanisms that help

ensure that the most important data is delivered first. QOS improves network

service quality by providing different data service levels by data type.

QOS mechanisms offer the ability to define the available bandwidth, allowing

agencies to assign preferences to specific traffic types, applications or

users. With QOS, higher priority data types receive higher priority access

to bandwidth. For example, many shops will use QOS to prioritize data traffic

generated by voice-over-IP applications.

"If you want to make voice a higher priority than the rest of [your]

traffic, you can configure the device to do that based on the traffic itself,

or at the port," said Marshall Eisenberg, director of product marketing

at Foundry Networks Inc.