CompTIA Cloud+ Practice Test

Which technology can be used to assign priority to specific network traffic?

1. Load balancing

2. QoS

3. NIC teaming

4. Jumbo frames

The correct answer is: QoS

Quality of Service (QoS) is a technology specifically designed to manage network resources by assigning priority to certain types of traffic. This is particularly important in environments where bandwidth is a limited resource and different types of data may have varying levels of importance. For example, in a voice over IP (VoIP) scenario, it's crucial to ensure voice packets are transmitted with higher priority over less time-sensitive data, such as file downloads or web browsing. QoS mechanisms ensure that high-priority traffic receives the necessary bandwidth and low latency, thus enhancing the overall user experience for critical applications. In contrast, other technologies mentioned do not directly focus on prioritizing network traffic. Load balancing distributes traffic across multiple servers or resources to optimize resource use and improve responsiveness but does not inherently assign traffic priority. NIC teaming combines multiple network interfaces to increase bandwidth and provide redundancy, while jumbo frames increase the size of the payload for network packets, which can enhance throughput but does not inherently involve traffic priority management.