What is traffic shaping?

Traffic shaping is the practice of regulating network data transfer to assure a certain level of performance, quality of service (QoS) or return on investment (ROI). This practice involves delaying the flow of packets that have been designated as less desired or less important than those of prioritized traffic streams. Therefore, it is also called as "packet shaping".

Regulating the flow of packets into a network is called as "bandwidth throttling".

Regulating the flow of packets out of the network is called as "rate limiting".

It is used for number of purposes:

• In a corporate sector, business related traffic may be given priority over other traffic.

• A large Internet Service Provider (ISP) may shape the traffic of an independent reseller.

• Traffic shaping could be an integral part of the proposed two-tiered Internet, in which certain customers would get traffic priority for a premium charge.

• An ISP may limit bandwidth consumption for certain applications to reduce costs and create the capacity to take on additional subscribers. This practice can limit a subscriber's unlimited connection and is often imposed without notification.

• Time-sensitive data may be given priority over traffic that can be delayed briefly with little-to-no ill effect.