About shaping policies

Shaping policies determine the bandwidth allocated to several applications. Each shaping policy is allocated a maximum incoming and outgoing bandwidth level, and several applications to share that allocation. You can assign a shaping policy to more than one bandwidth class.

Application weighting

You can use a weighting system to provide a level of preferred access to network bandwidth, for different applications. For example:

• Hotels artificially restricting video services over a free wireless network connection to encourage customers to use the premium service
• Businesses prioritizing VoIP traffic over video streaming

Applications, and application groups, can be given relative weights on a defined scale. When there's contention for bandwidth within a class, relative weighting is used to proportionately allocate bandwidth for the specified applications. A single application’s weighting is calculated as a proportion of the total weighting for all applications, or application groups, for that shaping policy. The total share for a class doesn't depend upon which applications are in use. Bandwidth shaping rules are applied before application weighting. Weighting is only used as a fairness measure when traffic exceeds the available bandwidth for that class.

Application caps

In addition to using an application weighting, you can also configure a cap on the bandwidth available for each application or application group. This can be used to provide an absolute restriction on services.