Q: What is QoS (Quality of Service) and why is it important? 220 0

QoS is a feature of many modern routers which connect you to your Internet service provider. Voice over IP is a realtime protocol which means that if it is interupted by other bandwidth intensive applications such as video, peer to peer file sharing or even sending a large e-mail it can affect the clarity of the digital audio signal. Quality of service on your router makes sure that lower priority bandwidth like peer to peer file sharing is does not interfere with voice conversations by giving it a lower priority. QoS makes sure that enough bandwidth is reserved for VoIP conversations, and it gives those conversation higher priority. In a business environment QoS is a good idea because of the number of applications sharing the Internet connection with VoIP. A alternative to quality of service is to have a dedicated Internet connection just for VoIP in which QoS is not required.