200-301 Question 386
Select 2A network administrator is configuring a WAN link on a router and observes that the link is experiencing intermittent congestion due to bursty traffic patterns. The administrator wants to ensure traffic is queued effectively during congestion and bandwidth usage is controlled to avoid exceeding the service provider's limit. Which two mechanisms should the administrator implement?
- A
Apply traffic shaping to smooth out bursty traffic and ensure it conforms to the service provider's bandwidth limit.
- B
Enable Weighted Fair Queuing (WFQ) to prioritize traffic based on flow characteristics during congestion.
- C
Use policing to drop excess traffic that exceeds the service provider's bandwidth limit.
- D
Enable Tail Drop as a queuing mechanism to handle packets when the queue becomes full.
- E
Configure Random Early Detection (RED) to proactively drop packets before the queue fills completely.
Show answer and explanation
Correct answers: A, B
Explanation
To handle bursty traffic and intermittent congestion effectively, the administrator should use traffic shaping to smooth traffic patterns and conform to the service provider's bandwidth limit, and enable Weighted Fair Queuing (WFQ) to prioritize and manage traffic flows during congestion. These mechanisms work together to optimize bandwidth usage and prevent congestion-related packet loss.
- A. Correct.
Traffic shaping is used to smooth out bursty traffic by buffering and sending traffic at a rate that conforms to the available bandwidth. This helps avoid congestion and stay within the service provider's bandwidth limit.
- B. Correct.
Weighted Fair Queuing (WFQ) ensures fair allocation of bandwidth to different traffic flows based on their characteristics, which is particularly effective during congestion.
- C. Incorrect.
Policing can drop excess traffic, but it is not ideal for bursty traffic as it does not smooth traffic and may lead to packet loss.
- D. Incorrect.
Tail Drop simply drops packets when a queue becomes full, which does not proactively manage traffic during congestion.
- E. Incorrect.
Random Early Detection (RED) helps avoid full queue drops by dropping packets early, but it is not the best choice for smoothing bursty traffic or ensuring bandwidth compliance.