Managed Switch Port Priority

[aharb]

I've searched around online and can't find the answer to this question. I have a simple 8-port managed switched that allows me to assign a priority to each port. I want my gaming packets to have the highest priority to reduce latency. I was wondering if the port that connects to my console should have a high priority than the port that goes back to the router? Or should the router have a higher priority number than the gaming console?

 

[SugarPsycho]

I don't believe the difference would be too great of an issue although I would probably recommend the console gets the priority if you want your gaming to get the maximum best.

 

[aharb]

I don't believe the difference would be too great of an issue although I would probably recommend the console gets the priority if you want your gaming to get the maximum best.

I was thinking the same thing. I'm not sure of a good way to measure the difference between the two options. I just figured the port going to the router might need to be the most important since all traffic has to go back to it.

 

[failboat]

Try the console port at the highest and everything else the same. If the WAN port has the highest then when someone else is downloading the packets coming in on WAN will get processed before your packets for gaming.

It will likely take some trial and error. Get someone to download and max out the WAN for testing.

 

[bill001g]

To even need a feature like that indicate you have a major design issue.

Almost all switches now run at what is called wire speed or non blocking. This means every port can run at 1gbit up and 1gbit down all at the same time. So in theory a switch with 8 ports can pass 16gbit of traffic.

The only way any queue can occur is if some port is trying to exceed 1gbit of traffic. Not very likely in a home internet setting. Even say you had a server on port 5 being overloaded by a number of machines on your network. If the router was on say port 6 and your pc was on port 7 you could use 1gbit of bandwidth...assuming you were one of the lucky people that have gigabit internet.

 

[failboat]

To even need a feature like that indicate you have a major design issue.

Almost all switches now run at what is called wire speed or non blocking. This means every port can run at 1gbit up and 1gbit down all at the same time. So in theory a switch with 8 ports can pass 16gbit of traffic.

The only way any queue can occur is if some port is trying to exceed 1gbit of traffic. Not very likely in a home internet setting. Even say you had a server on port 5 being overloaded by a number of machines on your network. If the router was on say port 6 and your pc was on port 7 you could use 1gbit of bandwidth...assuming you were one of the lucky people that have gigabit internet.

This is a good point. The switch may just send all the traffic to the router and the traffic trying to get through the WAN is waiting there. I'm not sure how that part works exactly. QoS on the WAN is typically run on the router or in-between the router and switch.