tc uses the following units when passed as a parameter. kbps: Kilobytes per second mbps: Megabytes per second kbit: Kilobits per second mbit: Megabits per second bps: Bytes per second Amounts of data can be specified in: kb or k: Kilobytes mb or m: Megabytes mbit: Megabits kbit: Kilobits To get the byte figure from bits, divide the number by 8 bit 9.2.1.1. Parameters & usage -------------- You can't configure the pfifo_fast qdisc as it is the hardwired default. This is how it is configured by default: priomap Determines how packet priorities, as assigned by the kernel, map to bands. Mapping occurs based on the TOS octet of the packet, which looks like this: 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 +-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+ | | | | | PRECEDENCE | TOS | MBZ | | | | | +-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+ The four TOS bits (the 'TOS field') are defined as: Binary Decimcal Meaning ----------------------------------------- 1000 8 Minimize delay (md) 0100 4 Maximize throughput (mt) 0010 2 Maximize reliability (mr) 0001 1 Minimize monetary cost (mmc) 0000 0 Normal Service As there is 1 bit to the right of these four bits, the actual value of the TOS field is double the value of the TOS bits. Tcpdump -v -v shows you the value of the entire TOS field, not just the four bits. It is the value you see in the first column of this table: TOS Bits Means Linux Priority Band ------------------------------------------------------------ 0x0 0 Normal Service 0 Best Effort 1 0x2 1 Minimize Monetary Cost 1 Filler 2 0x4 2 Maximize Reliability 0 Best Effort 1 0x6 3 mmc+mr 0 Best Effort 1 0x8 4 Maximize Throughput 2 Bulk 2 0xa 5 mmc+mt 2 Bulk 2 0xc 6 mr+mt 2 Bulk 2 0xe 7 mmc+mr+mt 2 Bulk 2 0x10 8 Minimize Delay 6 Interactive 0 0x12 9 mmc+md 6 Interactive 0 0x14 10 mr+md 6 Interactive 0 0x16 11 mmc+mr+md 6 Interactive 0 0x18 12 mt+md 4 Int. Bulk 1 0x1a 13 mmc+mt+md 4 Int. Bulk 1 0x1c 14 mr+mt+md 4 Int. Bulk 1 0x1e 15 mmc+mr+mt+md 4 Int. Bulk 1 Lots of numbers. The second column contains the value of the relevant four TOS bits, followed by their translated meaning. For example, 15 stands for a packet wanting Minimal Monetary Cost, Maximum Reliability, Maximum Throughput AND Minimum Delay. I would call this a 'Dutch Packet'. The fourth column lists the way the Linux kernel interprets the TOS bits, by showing to which Priority they are mapped. The last column shows the result of the default priomap. On the command line, the default priomap looks like this: 1, 2, 2, 2, 1, 2, 0, 0 , 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1 This means that priority 4, for example, gets mapped to band number 1. The priomap also allows you to list higher priorities (> 7) which do not correspond to TOS mappings, but which are set by other means. This table from RFC 1349 (read it for more details) tells you how applications might very well set their TOS bits: TELNET 1000 (minimize delay) FTP Control 1000 (minimize delay) Data 0100 (maximize throughput) TFTP 1000 (minimize delay) SMTP Command phase 1000 (minimize delay) DATA phase 0100 (maximize throughput) Domain Name Service UDP Query 1000 (minimize delay) TCP Query 0000 Zone Transfer 0100 (maximize throughput) NNTP 0001 (minimize monetary cost) ICMP Errors 0000 Requests 0000 (mostly) Responses (mostly)