Traffic Service Types, Categories, and Groups

VSI provides support for many different traffic service types. The switch is expected to support as many traffic types as possible (including a signaling traffic type), but it is also expected to provide a default traffic type.

Service categories combine related service types into a single category to ease load advertisement.

Service categories are used in interface policy configuration. They are intended to accommodate ATM Forum service types. (For example, service types CBR.1, CBR.2, and CBR.3 are grouped into the CBR service category.) For other service groups, the service categories and service types are the same.

The controller first selects a service group in the Switch Configurable Info parameter group in a VSI switch set configuration command.

Valid service groups are shown in Table 2-7.

Table 2-7. VSI Service Groups

Service Group	Description
0	MPLS service categories
1	ATM Forum service categories
2	IP service categories (obsolete)
3 through 10	Vendor-specific service categories (used by local agreement between switch and controller)

NOTE

The IP service group (2) and its corresponding service types and service categories are obsolete, because DiffServ has redefined the meaning of the Type of Service (ToS) bits of the IP packet header.

In the Interface Configuration Trap or Get/Get-more Response messages, after specifying the LIN in the Interface Identifier parameter group, the switch advertises the number of configurable service categories in the Interface General Info parameter group.

Another parameter group that must be included in the interface configuration is Interface Load Info. It can also be included in the response to a connection request specifying updated load information for the partition. The interface load info is composed by a number of load parameter structures, which advertise load info to the controller. It advertises the values that apply to all service categories (common values) and exceptions for service categories that differ from the common values.

NOTE

Exception values are reported whenever the value reported for the service category is less than the common value.

Service types are used in the Connection Bandwidth Info parameter group and the Service Type Identifier parameter group. The first parameter group is included in connection-related messages (Reserve and Commit commands, Get/Get-more Configuration responses, and Configuration traps), and the second is used in messages dealing with getting interface statistics per service type (Interface Get Service Type Statistics command and response).

NOTE

VSI allows the controller to provide per-service-type policy configuration. In that case, you can further subdivide a partition's bandwidth among different service types. Policy parameters are specified in percentages to eliminate reconfiguration if the partition bandwidth changes.

Appendix A, "Service Traffic Groups, Types, and Categories," lists all the service groups, service types, and service categories defined in VSI.