What is the primary purpose of Quality of Service (QoS) in a network?

• A. To protect against unauthorized access
• B. To provide redundant links
• C. To prioritize certain types of traffic
• D. To increase the physical distance of signals

Answer: (C)

Quality of Service focuses on managing network performance by prioritizing traffic so that time-sensitive or critical applications get the bandwidth and low latency they need. In practice, QoS classifies traffic into types such as voice, video, and best-effort data, marks packets to indicate their importance, and places them into appropriate queues. Through scheduling and, if needed, policing, it ensures that high-priority traffic is served first or gets a guaranteed share of bandwidth, mitigating issues like latency and jitter during congestion. This behavior keeps voice calls clear and video meetings smooth, even when the network is busy. QoS isn’t about security, redundancy, or extending signal distance, which are handled by other mechanisms; its aim is predictable, reliable performance for priority traffic within the available bandwidth.