Traffic policing is a mechanism that monitors the traffic in any network and enforces a bandwidth limit by discarding packets that exceed a certain rate1. This can reduce congestion and ensure fair allocation of bandwidth among different applications or users. However, discarding packets can also affect the performance and quality of some applications, especially those that are sensitive to packet loss, such as voice or video.
Traffic shaping is a congestion control mechanism that delays packets that exceed a certain rate instead of discarding them1. This can smooth out traffic bursts and avoid packet loss, but it also introduces latency and jitter. Traffic shaping can be beneficial for applications that can tolerate some delay but not packet loss, such as file transfers or streaming.
Traffic marking is a mechanism that assigns different priority levels to packets based on their type, source, destination, or other criteria2. This can help to differentiate between different classes of service and apply different policies or treatments to them. However, traffic marking does not enforce bandwidth limits by itself; it only provides information for other mechanisms to act upon.
Traffic classification is a process that identifies and categorizes packets based on their characteristics, such as protocol, port number, payload, or behavior. This can help to distinguish between different types of traffic and apply appropriate policies or actions to them. However, traffic classification does not enforce bandwidth limits by itself; it only provides input for other mechanisms to use.