3. DEI-Based Classification and Marking

This chapter provides information about the Discard Eligibility Indicator (DEI) feature that describes the requirements for DEI-based classification and marking for 7210 SAS platforms.

3.1. DEI-Based Classification and Marking

The DEI bit in the received packet can be used to assign the ingress profile for the packet. If DEI equals zero in the received packet, the packet is considered in-profile or green and if DEI equals one, the packet is considered out-of-profile or yellow. The use of the DEI bit for ingress classification can be enabled per FC. For a specific FC, if the DEI bit is used for the ingress profile assignment, the profile defined in the ingress classification entry is ignored. See Ingress Profile Assignment for information about the behavior when a profile is assigned to the packet on ingress.

On the 7210 SAS-K 2F1C2T, DEI-based classification is supported on access SAP ingress and access-uplink port ingress.

On the 7210 SAS-K 2F6C4T and 7210 SAS-K 3SFP+ 8C, DEI-based classification is supported on access SAP ingress, network port ingress, hybrid port ingress, and access-uplink port ingress.

3.2. DEI-Based Marking

The DEI bit can be used to mark the packet to carry the profile (which is assigned by an operator’s trusted node on ingress to the carrier’s network) to the subsequent nodes in the network. It allows high-priority in-profile packet to be allocated appropriate resources by all the network nodes on the path to the final destination. Similarly, it allows out-of-profile packets to be treated with less preference compared to in-profile packets by all the network nodes on the path to the final destination.

The following support is available for DEI-based marking:

  1. option to mark DEI bits for access SAP egress on access ports is supported on all 7210 SAS platforms as described in this document
  2. option to mark DEI bits for port egress on access-uplink ports is supported on all 7210 SAS platforms as described in this document
  3. option to mark DEI bits for port egress on network ports and hybrid ports is only supported on the 7210 SAS-K 2F6C4T and 7210 SAS-K 3SFP+ 8C
  4. by default, in-profile packets are marked with a DEI bit of 0 and out-of-profile packets are marked with a DEI bit of 1. The user has the option to mark all the packets belonging to an FC with the same DEI value, regardless of its profile, by using the force-de-mark command.
  5. DEI bits can be marked only if the remark policy of remark-type dot1p or dot1p-dscp is used
    Note:

    See Network QoS Policy Command Reference, Service Egress Policy Command Reference, and Service SAP QoS Policy Command Reference for information about the CLI commands for DEI.