Note: The following post is an excerpt from the full QoS section of IEWB-RS VOL1 version 5.

Peak shaping may look confusing at first sight; however, its function becomes clear once you think of oversubscription. As we discussed before, oversubscription means selling customers more bandwidth than a network can supply, hoping that not all connections would use their maximum sending rate at the same time. With oversubscription, traffic contract usually specifies three parameters: PIR, CIR and Tc – peak rate, committed rate and averaging time interval for rate measurements. The SP allows customers to send traffic at rates up to PIR, but only guarantees CIR rate in case of network congestion. Inside the network SP uses any of the max-min scheduling procedures to implement bandwidth sharing in such manner that oversubscribed traffic has lower preference than conforming traffic. Additionally, the SP generally assumes that customers respond to notifications of traffic congestion in the network (either explicit, such as FECN/BECN/TCP ECN or implicit such as packet drops in TCP) by slowing down sending rate.

Commonly, customers implement traffic shaping to conform to traffic contract, and provider uses traffic policing to enforce the contract. If a contract specifies PIR, then it makes sense for customer to shape traffic at PIR rate. However, this makes difficult to deduce CIR value just by looking at the router configuration. In some circumstances, like with Frame-Relay networks, a secondary parameter, known as minCIR, may help to understand the configuration quickly. In general, it would benefit to see CIR and PIR in the shaping configuration at the same time. This is exactly the idea behind shape peak. When you configure

shape peak <CIR> <Bc> <Be>

the actual maximum sending rate is limited to:

PIR = CIR*(1+Be/Bc).

That is, each time interval Tc=Bc/CIR the shaper allows sending up to Bc+Be bits of data. By default, if you omit the value for Be, it equals to Bc and thus PIR=2*CIR by default. However, due to some IOS show output discrepancy, this is NOT reflected in “show” command output, unless you explicitly specify the Be value in command line. With shape peak configured this way, you can see both CIR as the “average rate” and PIR as the “target rate” when issuing “show policy-map” command.

Rack1R6#show policy-map interface fastEthernet 0/0.146

 FastEthernet0/0.146 
  Service-policy output: POLICY_VLAN146_OUT
    Class-map: HTTP (match-all)

      6846 packets, 4065413 bytes

      5 minute offered rate 63000 bps, drop rate 0 bps

      Match: access-group 180

      Traffic Shaping

           Target/Average   Byte   Sustain   Excess    Interval  Increment

             Rate           Limit  bits/int  bits/int  (ms)      (bytes)

           128000/64000     1600   6400      6400      100       1600

...

All other shaping functions remain the same as with the classic GTS - shape peak is just more suited for use with oversubscription scenarios. Also, in Frame-Relay networks you may want to use configuration similar to the following to respond to congestion notifications:

shape peak <CIR> <Bc> <Be>

shape adaptive <CIR>

To illustrate the use of shape peak, let's look at the following scenario. Here, R4 serves two customers (R1 and R6) sending their traffic across one serial link of 128Kbps between R4 and R5. The fictive ISP sells 128Kbps (PIR) to each of the customers, guaranteeing only 64Kbps (CIR). Let's assume the measurement interval of 100ms for this configuration. The serial link, which is the oversubscribed resource, uses WFQ for fair bandwidth sharing between two flows.

R1:

access-list 180 permit tcp any eq 80 any

!

class-map HTTP

 match access-group 180

!

policy-map POLICY_VLAN146_OUT

  class HTTP

    shape peak 64000 6400 6400

!

interface FastEthernet 0/0

  service-policy output POLICY_VLAN146_OUT
R6:

access-list 180 permit tcp any eq 80 any

!

class-map HTTP

 match access-group 180

!

policy-map POLICY_VLAN146_OUT

  class HTTP

    shape peak 64000 6400 6400

!

interface FastEthernet 0/0.146

  service-policy output POLICY_VLAN146_OUT
R4:

!

! All HTTP traffic

!

ip access-list extended HTTP

 permit tcp any eq 80 any

!

class-map HTTP

 match access-group name HTTP
!

! Traffic from R1 and R6 respectively

!

ip access-list extended FROM_R1

 permit ip host 155.1.146.1 any

!

ip access-list extended FROM_R6

 permit ip host 155.1.146.6 any

!

!

!

class-map FROM_R1

 match access-group name FROM_R1

!

class-map FROM_R6

 match access-group name FROM_R6
!

! Subrate policers

!

policy-map SUBRATE_POLICER

 class FROM_R1

  police cir 64000 bc 3200 pir 128000 be 6400

   conform-action set-prec-transmit 1

   exceed-action set-prec-transmit 0

   violate-action drop

 class FROM_R6

  police cir 64000 bc 3200 pir 128000 be 6400

   conform-action set-prec-transmit 1

   exceed-action set-prec-transmit 0

   violate-action drop
!

! Policer configuration using MQC syntax.

!

policy-map POLICE_VLAN146

 class HTTP

   service-policy SUBRATE_POLICER

!

interface FastEthernet 0/1

  service-policy input POLICE_VLAN146

The idea is to allow R1 and R6 send up to 128Kbps if there is enough bandwidth on the serial link. However, if both of the sources start streaming at the same time, the SP may only guarantee up to 64Kbps to each of sending routers. The implementation meters each flow against 64Kbps and 128Kbps meters, and marks all conforming traffic with IP precedence of 1. All exceeding traffic is marked with IP precedence of 0. Since the serial link uses WFQ, we conclude that traffic marked with IP precedence of zero has lower scheduling weight. Thus, if IP precedence 1 traffic exist on the link, it is given preference over low-priority traffic (precedence 0).

To verify our configuration in action, start downloading a large file from R1 across R4 and see the statistics on R1 and R4:

Rack1R4#show policy-map interface fastEthernet 0/1

 FastEthernet0/1 
  Service-policy input: POLICE_VLAN146
    Class-map: HTTP (match-all)

      20451 packets, 12066090 bytes

      30 second offered rate 126000 bps, drop rate 0 bps

      Match: access-group name HTTP
      Service-policy : SUBRATE_POLICER
        Class-map: FROM_R1 (match-all)

          20451 packets, 12066090 bytes

          30 second offered rate 126000 bps, drop rate 0 bps

          Match: access-group name FROM_R1

          police:

              cir 64000 bps, bc 3200 bytes

              pir 128000 bps, be 6400 bytes

            conformed 11113 packets, 6556670 bytes; actions:

              set-prec-transmit 1

            exceeded 9338 packets, 5509420 bytes; actions:

              set-prec-transmit 0

            violated 0 packets, 0 bytes; actions:

              drop

            conformed 64000 bps, exceed 62000 bps, violate 0 bps
        Class-map: FROM_R6 (match-all)

          0 packets, 0 bytes

          30 second offered rate 0 bps, drop rate 0 bps

          Match: access-group name FROM_R6

          police:

              cir 64000 bps, bc 3200 bytes

              pir 128000 bps, be 6400 bytes

            conformed 0 packets, 0 bytes; actions:

              set-prec-transmit 1

            exceeded 0 packets, 0 bytes; actions:

              set-prec-transmit 0

            violated 0 packets, 0 bytes; actions:

              drop

            conformed 0 bps, exceed 0 bps, violate 0 bps
        Class-map: class-default (match-any)

          0 packets, 0 bytes

          30 second offered rate 0 bps, drop rate 0 bps

          Match: any
!

! The above statistics demonstrate that R1 uses almost all available bandwidth

! From the output below we can see that R1 is set to CIR 64Kbps and PIR 128Kbs.

! We may also notice that shaper was active for some time, delaying hundreds of

! exceeding packets. This usually happens in the beginning of TCP session when

! sendger aggressively increases sending rate.

!
Rack1R1#show policy-map interface fastEthernet 0/0

 FastEthernet0/0 
  Service-policy output: POLICY_VLAN146_OUT
    Class-map: HTTP (match-all)

      3225 packets, 1897929 bytes

      30 second offered rate 124000 bps, drop rate 0 bps

      Match: access-group 180

      Traffic Shaping

           Target/Average   Byte   Sustain   Excess    Interval  Increment

             Rate           Limit  bits/int  bits/int  (ms)      (bytes)

           128000/64000     1600   6400      6400      100       1600     
        Adapt  Queue     Packets   Bytes     Packets   Bytes     Shaping

        Active Depth                         Delayed   Delayed   Active

        -      0         3225 1897929 348 205320    no
    Class-map: class-default (match-any)

      29 packets, 4378 bytes

      30 second offered rate 0 bps, drop rate 0 bps

      Match: any

Now start another file transfer, this time from R6 down to a host behind, R5 across the serial link. This will make both flows compete for the link bandwidth, and result in fair sharing of the link bandwidth. Now verify the policer statistics once again:

Rack1R4#show policy-map interface fastEthernet 0/1

 FastEthernet0/1 
  Service-policy input: POLICE_VLAN146
    Class-map: HTTP (match-all)

      35113 packets, 20715559 bytes

      30 second offered rate 126000 bps, drop rate 0 bps

      Match: access-group name HTTP
      Service-policy : SUBRATE_POLICER
        Class-map: FROM_R1 (match-all)

          29986 packets, 17691740 bytes

          30 second offered rate 63000 bps, drop rate 0 bps

          Match: access-group name FROM_R1

          police:

              cir 64000 bps, bc 3200 bytes

              pir 128000 bps, be 6400 bytes

            conformed 18466 packets, 10894940 bytes; actions:

              set-prec-transmit 1

            exceeded 11520 packets, 6796800 bytes; actions:

              set-prec-transmit 0

            violated 0 packets, 0 bytes; actions:

              drop

            conformed 63000 bps, exceed 0 bps, violate 0 bps
        Class-map: FROM_R6 (match-all)

          5127 packets, 3023819 bytes

          30 second offered rate 63000 bps, drop rate 0 bps

          Match: access-group name FROM_R6

          police:

              cir 64000 bps, bc 3200 bytes

              pir 128000 bps, be 6400 bytes

            conformed 5124 packets, 3022049 bytes; actions:

              set-prec-transmit 1

            exceeded 3 packets, 1770 bytes; actions:

              set-prec-transmit 0

            violated 0 packets, 0 bytes; actions:

              drop

            conformed 63000 bps, exceed 0 bps, violate 0 bps
        Class-map: class-default (match-any)

          0 packets, 0 bytes

          30 second offered rate 0 bps, drop rate 0 bps

          Match: any
!

! Verify statistics for both traffic shapers on R1 and R6. Both are set for PIR=128Kbps.

! However, metered rate is close to CIR, and the shaping is inactive. The sending rate

! went down thanks to TCP implicit congestion management procedure, that makes protocol

! sending rate adaptive to congestion in networks.

!
Rack1R6#show policy-map interface fastEthernet 0/0.146

 FastEthernet0/0.146 
  Service-policy output: POLICY_VLAN146_OUT
    Class-map: HTTP (match-all)

      6846 packets, 4065413 bytes

      5 minute offered rate 63000 bps, drop rate 0 bps

      Match: access-group 180

      Traffic Shaping

           Target/Average   Byte   Sustain   Excess    Interval  Increment

             Rate           Limit  bits/int  bits/int  (ms)      (bytes)

           128000/64000     1600   6400      6400      100       1600     
        Adapt  Queue     Packets   Bytes     Packets   Bytes     Shaping

        Active Depth                         Delayed   Delayed   Active

        -      0         6846      4065413   3         1782      no
    Class-map: class-default (match-any)

      191 packets, 43930 bytes

      5 minute offered rate 0 bps, drop rate 0 bps

      Match: any
Rack1R1#show policy-map interface fastEthernet 0/0

 FastEthernet0/0 
 Service-policy output: POLICY_VLAN146_OUT
    Class-map: HTTP (match-all)

      33062 packets, 19505469 bytes

      30 second offered rate 63000 bps, drop rate 0 bps

      Match: access-group 180

      Traffic Shaping

           Target/Average   Byte   Sustain   Excess    Interval  Increment

             Rate           Limit  bits/int  bits/int  (ms)      (bytes)

           128000/64000     1600   6400      6400      100       1600     
        Adapt  Queue     Packets   Bytes     Packets   Bytes     Shaping

        Active Depth                         Delayed   Delayed   Active

        -      0         33062     19505469  2632      1552858   no
    Class-map: class-default (match-any)

      7641 packets, 7385752 bytes

      30 second offered rate 0 bps, drop rate 0 bps

      Match: any

Now let's confirm that WFQ is actually working on the serial interface between R4 and R5 and provides truly fair division of the bandwidth:

Rack1R4#show queueing interface serial 0/1

Interface Serial0/1 queueing strategy: fair

  Input queue: 0/75/0/0 (size/max/drops/flushes); Total output drops: 0

  Queueing strategy: weighted fair

  Output queue: 12/1000/64/0 (size/max total/threshold/drops)

     Conversations  2/3/256 (active/max active/max total)

     Reserved Conversations 0/0 (allocated/max allocated)

     Available Bandwidth 96 kilobits/sec
(depth/weight/total drops/no-buffer drops/interleaves) 6/16192/0/0/0

Conversation 134, linktype: ip, length: 580

source: 155.1.146.1, destination: 155.1.58.8, id: 0xEB41, ttl: 254,

TOS: 32 prot: 6, source port 80, destination port 11001
(depth/weight/total drops/no-buffer drops/interleaves) 6/16192/0/0/0

Conversation 192, linktype: ip, length: 580

source: 155.1.146.6, destination: 155.1.108.10, id: 0x70CA, ttl: 254,

TOS: 32 prot: 6, source port 80, destination port 11002

To summarize, shape peak is a special form of shaping specifically adapted to configure oversubscription scenarios. All other properties of GTS remains the same.