Traffic Policing vs Traffic Shaping
Developers should learn traffic policing when designing or managing network systems that require bandwidth control, such as in cloud services, enterprise networks, or internet service providers, to prevent traffic bursts from degrading performance meets pick tc/htb when you own the linux box doing the routing — a home gateway, a hypervisor host metering tenant vms, an isp edge box — and need free, kernel-level, per-class bandwidth control with borrowing. Here's our take.
Traffic Policing
Developers should learn traffic policing when designing or managing network systems that require bandwidth control, such as in cloud services, enterprise networks, or internet service providers, to prevent traffic bursts from degrading performance
Traffic Policing
Nice PickDevelopers should learn traffic policing when designing or managing network systems that require bandwidth control, such as in cloud services, enterprise networks, or internet service providers, to prevent traffic bursts from degrading performance
Pros
- +It is essential for implementing QoS policies, limiting bandwidth for specific applications or users, and ensuring compliance with network contracts
- +Related to: quality-of-service, network-traffic-management
Cons
- -Specific tradeoffs depend on your use case
Traffic Shaping
Pick tc/HTB when you own the Linux box doing the routing — a home gateway, a hypervisor host metering tenant VMs, an ISP edge box — and need free, kernel-level, per-class bandwidth control with borrowing
Pros
- +Do NOT reach for HTB to rate-limit an HTTP API; that's an L2/L3 packet queue, not a request counter
- +Related to: linux-networking, iptables
Cons
- -Specific tradeoffs depend on your use case
The Verdict
Use Traffic Policing if: You want it is essential for implementing qos policies, limiting bandwidth for specific applications or users, and ensuring compliance with network contracts and can live with specific tradeoffs depend on your use case.
Use Traffic Shaping if: You prioritize do not reach for htb to rate-limit an http api; that's an l2/l3 packet queue, not a request counter over what Traffic Policing offers.
Developers should learn traffic policing when designing or managing network systems that require bandwidth control, such as in cloud services, enterprise networks, or internet service providers, to prevent traffic bursts from degrading performance
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