Goal

Provide a network traffic shaper which supports web-based interface to manage Quality of Service (QoS) functions available in Linux Kernel.

Requirements

• Allow shaping from different constraints:
  • Per service (protocol and port)
  • Per eBox object
  • Per interface
  • Per application protocol
  • Per source/destination address
• Shaping capabilities:
  • Priorize traffic
  • Share bandwidth (equally|proportional)
  • Guarantee minimum bandwidth
  • Limit maximum bandwidth with/out bursting
  • Guarantee maximum delay
  • Fallback to default rule
• Treat egress traffic (sent) and ingress (received) equally using IMQ
• Enable/Disable/Remove/Change? priority to a rule

Design

The traffic shaping module design will be taken incrementally. It will be taken different phases deployed in  roadmap:

1. Shape per service and per interface
   • The shaping consists of:
     1. Guarantee bandwidth
     2. Limit bandwidth
     3. Priorize traffic
   • The different rules can be enabled, disabled, removed or changes
2. Shape per eBox object
   • An eBox object can be a host or a net
3. Shape per application protocol
   • Using  l7-filter and/or  ipp2p to classify bulk data applications such as P2P file sharing.
   • A study-case should be done in order to take a look for performance issues
4. Shape not only egress traffic but also ingress traffic
   • In theory, kernel should treat them equally but it's not and  IMQ workaround should be used.
     • Its lack of stability is the main point to delay its incursion
5. Shape per source/destination address
6. Include bursting into limit bandwidth
7. Guarantee a maximum delay using HFSC queue discipline
   • This gives VoIP/SIP and other very interactive traffic a point
   • Almost transparent from user point of view
8. Hierarchical rules
   • Sharing bandwidth

Web interface will use  prototype library to give AJAX support