Enabling Quality of Service

Enable QoS on the Vocera systems to improve the performance of your network. Excluding any of the QoS configuration tasks can result in performance problems.

To implement an end-to-end QoS solution for your Vocera system, you must perform the following configuration tasks:

• Enable QoS on your B3000n badges by setting B3N.EnableWMM and B3.EnableWMM to TRUE. For more information, refer to Vocera Device Configuration Guide.
  Note: The Vocera Collaboration Suite application automatically takes advantage of QoS in version 2.0.2 or later.

  On V5000 Smartbadge and C1000 Minibadge, QoS is enabled by default.

• Ensure that the Vocera QoS Manager service is installed and enabled on the Vocera Voice Server, Vocera Client Gateway, and Vocera SIP Telephony Gateway machines. For more information, refer to Confirming Vocera QoS Manager Installation.
• Ensure that the Windows QoS Packet Scheduler is installed and enabled on the network connection of your Vocera Voice Server, Vocera Client Gateway, and Vocera SIP Telephony Gateway machines. For more information, refer to Confirming Windows QoS Packet Scheduler Installation.
• Create a Local Group Policy to mark packets with DSCP 46 on each of your Vocera Voice Server, Vocera Client Gateway, and Vocera SIP Telephony Gateway machines. For more information, refer to Creating a Windows QoS Policy.
• Configure your access points to map IP level DSCP EF to WMM/802.11e level voice priority. The access points pass the DSCP markings through to the network. For more information, refer to Enabling 802.11e QoS on Cisco Access Points.
• Ensure that the switches and routers on your network are configured to accept DSCP markings.

Vocera B3000n and B3000 Badges mark Vocera application packets for both signaling and audio with DSCP value 46 (Express Forwarding) at all times with or without WMM enabled. The Vocera Voice Server also marks packets with DSCP value 46. For the latest versions of the Vocera Voice Server refer to http://pubs.vocera.com/docportal/index.html#docportal/docportal/version/topics/vs.html.

For example, if you do not enable the Vocera QoS Manager service on the Vocera Voice Server, then packets that originate from the Vocera Voice Server has a lower priority than those that originate from badges. If there is excessive traffic on a given AP, you may experience problems during voice communication with the Vocera Voice Server.