Protocol Based Routing

[michaelpedrick]

I am wondering if anyone knows of a router that is not CLI, but capable of providing several kinds of rules for defining a traffic class based on protocol. In short, I would like the router to grant priority to UDP-based traffic. This would help ensure that VOIP calls originated from any device on the network is granted priority. The network would be used by various types of visiting mobile devices and it is not practical to establish rules for defining a traffic class that is address based. However, I wish to give priority to voice traffic if possible using a fairly straightforward GUI-based router.

 

[Cloud200]

The firmware tomato will do it for sure.
So will pfsense.
Asus firmware will too.

 

[System Error Message]

routerboards do what you ask using GUI. You can set rules based on per IP or mac or protocol or altogether.

 

[azazel1024]

A lot of routers (most?) with configurable QoS can do priority based on protocol. Of course some are simply "QoS on/off" and then secrete sauce.

 

[stevech]

Good QoS includes stateful packet inspection - where the QoS code detects popular streaming app packets, be they TCP or UDP or RTP.

Such as detecting SIP and VoIP, popular games that don't use TCP for some forms of data, video streamers like Netflix, and so on.

Packeteer was among the first to productize this.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Packeteer

 

[Samir]

My old Cisco rv016s on v3 firmware allow you to specify a service (TCP/UDP and port number) and give it a guaranteed bandwidth. The rv042 and 82 should be able to do the same thing.

 

[System Error Message]

But the cisco RV cannot do priority and or bandwidth based QoS with custom defined rules and protocols. routerOS, ubiquiti edgeOS do have similar QoS which you can give a guaranteed bandwidth but it is much much better to use priority based QoS and bandwidth for some too as it also can improve latency on applications that you want and make sure it gets the bandwidth it needs. QoS does increase latency because of buffers and queues so being able to set priority and even the buffer size is important and routerOS lets you set the buffer size and queue type.

 

[Samir]

But the cisco RV cannot do priority and or bandwidth based QoS with custom defined rules and protocols. routerOS, ubiquiti edgeOS do have similar QoS which you can give a guaranteed bandwidth but it is much much better to use priority based QoS and bandwidth for some too as it also can improve latency on applications that you want and make sure it gets the bandwidth it needs. QoS does increase latency because of buffers and queues so being able to set priority and even the buffer size is important and routerOS lets you set the buffer size and queue type.

But the rv series is gui and easy to use, which is what I gathered from the OP.

 

[System Error Message]

same for mikrotik and ubiquiti, both have GUI. With mikrotik one only needs to understand networking in order to use it.

 

[Samir]

With mikrotik one only needs to understand networking in order to use it.

But I think this these are advanced routers that will not be 'fairly straghtforward' as the OP is requesting.

 

[System Error Message]

they are advanced routers but the OP said if possible. The reason i suggested them was because you could define your own rules with them as opposed to what you would get from a consumer/SOHO router.

Based on the way the OP wrote and what he said it seems that he has some skill and QoS is actually easy to configure in routerOS and ubiquiti, its fairly straight forward compared to advanced routing, load balancing and firewall.

Some routers have VOIP predefined but if you cannot define or find VOIP in them than you could always use port and address.

 

[Samir]

they are advanced routers but the OP said if possible. The reason i suggested them was because you could define your own rules with them as opposed to what you would get from a consumer/SOHO router.

Based on the way the OP wrote and what he said it seems that he has some skill and QoS is actually easy to configure in routerOS and ubiquiti, its fairly straight forward compared to advanced routing, load balancing and firewall.

Some routers have VOIP predefined but if you cannot define or find VOIP in them than you could always use port and address.

Smb routers also have these capabilities. People use them all the time for voip routing. I think the two routers you're recommending are just too far above most people's skill and patience level.