Unmanaged Switch QoS - 4 Queues Strict Mode?

[DaveLembke]

Curious if anyone knows how this unmanaged switch QoS sets its priorities. How does it know what needs more bandwidth at times when multiple devices are drawing hard on the bandwidth? I looked around on google and the only switches with QoS info are managed ones where you can set specific ports to have a greater priority. Never heard of a unmanaged switch with a QoS feature built into it and was looking around because I want to replace my 5-port with an 8-port and this caught my attention (QoS: 4 Queues, strict mode).

Looked at manual online here: http://www.dlink.com/hr/hr/-/media/business_products/dgs/dgs-108/manual/dgs_108_manual_en_uk.pdf

But it just states: Supports IEEE802.1p QoS (4 Queues)

Looking up IEEE802.1p since the manual only refers to the standard gives me this info here:

The IEEE 802.1p signaling standard defines traffic prioritization at Layer 2 of the OSI model. Layer 2 network devices, such as switches, that adhere to this standard can group incoming packets into separate traffic classes. The 802.1p standard is used to prioritize packets as they traverse a network segment (subnet).

Wiki shows this:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IEEE_P802.1p   which jumps from history of IEEE802.1P to IEEE802.1Q when going into how priorities are specified and states: ( Eight different classes of service are available as expressed through the 3-bit PCP field )

OK... still wondering HOW it knows what is a priority how does it know that one device is greater priority than another.  How does this value get set. Is there a standard that VoIP devices are using that all traffic from them have a flag saying HELLO IM VoIP I should be given high priority! vs looking like any other device on the network given an equal priority? According to looking at VoIP it should be given a Priority of 5 in the ( 0 thru 7 ) priority scale where the highest number is greatest priority.

Switching Fabric: 16Gbps

Packet Filtering/Forwarding Rates:
Ethernet: 14,880 pps per port
Fast Ethernet: 148,800 pps per port
Gigabit Ethernet: 1,488,000 pps per port

RAM Buffer: 128KB per device

QoS: 4 Queues, strict mode

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My Vonage VoIP is handled through this Linksys PAP2 https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833124162 and not sure if it has QoS flagging. No info found on that. 

[camerongray]

My random guess would be that if you have traffic that is already tagged with a VLAN (either through a managed switch elsewhere in the network or on the device itself) then the switch would handle this.

That said, you can pick up dirt cheap "smart managed" switches for not much more than a completely unmanaged switch so if you're wanting to do QoS then I'd be inclined to get one of these.

[DaveLembke]

Thanks Cameron ... Gonna get a managed switch instead. Further digging it shows that that unmanaged switch would require packets with the QoS flag set by a device etc in order to make use of the QoS feature. I looked into my Vonage VoIP and it has nothing on setting QoS. Only adjustment was to MTU which I left at auto. So managed switch is the way to go and the port that the Vonage VoIP connects to I will set at a higher priority.