VI. Feature Setup
ExpiredPrioritise a Work Laptop with Quality of Service (QoS) on a DrayTek router
DrayTek's Quality of Service can help to make the most of an Internet connection. It does so by splitting up the connection into multiple Queues of different levels of importance and time-sensitivity so that important traffic isn't adversely affected by other traffic using the Internet connection.
An example would be to prioritise voice calls so that a download doesn't cause the audio quality to temporarily break up.
Each of the QoS Class groups (Class 1, 2, 3) is assigned priority in order, with Class 1 (and Auto-VoIP) being the highest priority, then Class 2, Class 3 and then Others (Unclassified). Each Class group can have bandwidth reserved for it, ensuring each Class always has sufficient bandwidth available to give the best performance to all services.
Unclassified traffic is treated as the least time sensitive, which is fine for video streaming services which buffer their download or general downloads where the use of the file is only needed once the download it completed. So if it takes 7 seconds or 14 seconds it makes little difference where as missing a bit of an audio call can be criticial.
Quality of Service can be set up to give priority to specified IP addresses. This ensures that those prioritised devices have the necessary bandwidth to operate regardless of what other network traffic is going through the router. For instance, a Work Laptop can be given priority on the network so that it can transfer files across the VPN and make video calls without interruption, while other users can still make full use of the Internet.
Assigning priority to a single computer or multiple IP addresses with a QoS Class, requires these steps:
| 1 | Configure Bind IP to MAC | Allocate a fixed IP address to a single IP |
| 2 | Configure QoS Classes | Assign that IP to a Quality of Service Class so that it can be prioritised |
| 3 | Enable & Tune QoS | Activate Quality of Service for a WAN interface and ensure it's properly tuned to give the best performance |
| 4 | View QoS Statistics | Check the activity of Quality of Service in real time |
Step 1 - Configure Bind IP to MAC
To prioritise a single device, such as a work laptop on the network, it needs to be given a fixed IP address. This is required for QoS Class Rules, which will be covered in the next step.
To give a device a fixed IP address, whether or not that computer is using DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol), the router can make a Bind IP to MAC reservation.
Bind IP to MAC links an IP address to a MAC address, the latter of which is unique to each device. Once set up, the router will always assign that IP address to that device and will stop other devices from using that IP.
To configure this, go to [LAN] > [Bind IP to MAC] and set that to Enable. Click OK to save and apply the change.
Then, from the ARP Table, select the device that you want to fix the IP address of, which can be identified on the device itself by checking the IP address setting in Windows.
Click the Add button to add that device into the "IP Bind List" and click OK to save and apply the changes.
With the Bind IP to MAC entry configured, that computer will always be assigned that IP address by the router when it requests an IP. Other users can not make use of this by setting their IP manually, the router will only talk to the IP address if the MAC address matches.
Step 2 - Configure QoS Classes
Each Class defines the importance of the traffic. Assign important and time sensitive traffic to Class 1, less time sensitive traffic to Class 2, then Class 3 can be used to prioritise data that needs to be higher priority than streaming video etc.
In this example, the prioritised IP address will be put into Class 2 - this gives room for prioritising time critical services if needed.
To configure the QoS Class rule, go to [Bandwidth Management] > [Quality of Service] and click Rule - Edit for Class 2:
In the list of Rules for QoS Class 2, click the Add button to create a new rule:
Click Local Address - Edit to configure the LAN IP address that the rule will apply to:
Set the Address Type to Single Address.
Set the IP address to prioritise as the Start IP Address, then click OK to add that into the rule:
With the IP address now specified, tick the Enable checkbox and make sure the rule has these settings:
| Ethernet Type | IPv4 |
| Local Address | Set to the IP address to prioritise |
| Remote Address | Any |
| DiffServ CodePoint | Any |
| Service Type | Any |
Click OK to save the QoS Class Rule.
Now the list of rules for Class 2 includes the IP address that will be prioritised. It can be helpful to set a name to identify the traffic types included in the Class 2 rules.
Step 3 - Enabling and Tuning Quality of Service
Once the Class 2 rule has been configured, go back to [Bandwidth Management] > [Quality of Service].
Tick the Enable checkbox for each WAN interface that you want to apply Quality of Service to, then configure the settings for that interface:
| WAN Type | Inbound / Outbound Bandwidth | Class 1 / 2 / 3 / Others Bandwidth Reservation % |
|---|---|---|
| WAN1 on DSL Routers | xDSL routers determine the correct speed to use from the DSL sync rate |
Consider the amount of bandwidth that each Class might potentially require and set the reservation % accordingly. The upstream bandwidth is usually the limiting factor, with lower speeds than download bandwidth. Set the reservation to account for the lower amount of upstream bandwidth available. |
|
WAN2 on DSL Routers All WANs on Ethernet Routers |
While QoS is not enabled, check the available bandwidth with a speed testing website. Once you've determined the maximum bandwidth, set the Inbound/Outbound Bandwidth values to be maybe 5% lower than that maximum rate. Setting a slightly lower value can give better overall performance, especially with time & latency sensitive traffic. |
Click OK to apply the QoS settings.
The router will now begin to prioritise traffic passing through to the Internet, based on these Quality of Service settings. Any traffic to or from the prioritised IP address will now be handled with higher priority than normal traffic and will have the specified amount of bandwidth reserved for it.
Step 4 - Viewing QoS Statistics
To view the status and performance of Quality of Service, go to [Bandwidth Management] > [Quality of Service] and click the Status - Status link for the desired WAN interface:
This shows in real time how traffic is handled by the router.
In this example, the prioritised computer and other devices are all using the Internet at once. The router allocates and reserves bandwidth for the MidPriority class, ensuring it always has bandwidth available:
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- First Published: 15/04/2020
- Last Updated: 22/04/2021