What is Traffic shaping?
ISPs have equipment that can detect what customers are using their connections for. They can tell how much e-mail a customer is sending and receiving, or if they are using their connection for online gaming. They can also tell whether customers are using peer-to-peer software, such as Skype or BitTorrent. Traffic shaping occurs when the ISP directs speeds — or bandwidth — to the different types of applications, thus making one, such as e-mail, faster while slowing another, such as BitTorrent.
Traffic shaping, in simple terms, is a technique used by some internet service providers (ISPs) to control the flow of information “traffic” through their networks. The term is often used as a perjorative, however, ISPs consider traffic shaping a positive attempt at trying to maintain a uniform flow of information through its networks in order to maintain a high quality service for customers. When properly implemented, traffic shaping can make a network more efficient by acting as a bit of a traffic cop. The idea is to reserve bandwidth for critical applications such as internet browsers and email while restricting the usage of other more bandwidth intensive applications such a peer to peer file sharing applications. In a simple example, if an internet service provider has 50 high speed users in a particular area browsing the internet and retrieving their email, the network will probably respond quickly for all users. If suddenly a few users log on and start downloading massive amounts
Traffic shaping is a technology used to enhance call quality. Used by EdgeMarc routers, traffic shaping software can differentiate between voice and data traffic. The software then “throttles back” the speed on the data traffic to make room for the voice traffic to proceed on the network unimpeded.
Traffic shaping is a strategy to optimize performance and manage traffic on a network. Because most networks have a limited amount of bandwidth, an effective strategy is needed to ensure the network does not become overloaded. Computer network traffic can sometimes cause a network to become so busy is leads to choking points. To understand traffic shaping it is first important to understand how information is transported through a network. Information is sent over networks in packets, which are nothing more than formatted blocks of data. These data packets may be given different priority levels as they go through a network in order to optimize performance. This is at the heart of the traffic shaping model. In some ways, it is not much different than vehicle traffic on a street, which is a form of traffic shaping in the physical world. In general, street traffic is all considered to have the same priority level, no matter what individual drivers may think. However, some cars — or packet
