VoIP, Traffic Shaper, QoS, HFSC (my head is spinning)

[Technigogo]

The facts:

• pfSense running latest version.

• phone system is Allworx using a Sip provider for about 6 lines (up to 7, I think)

• connection is now 35x5 w/static IP from RoadRunner (was 15x2 before today)

Goal:
I need to QoS all VoIP traffic above all else.

What I've done:
I have used the wizard and followed the instructions of HFSC from the PFSense Guide Book. I set the bandwidth to 90% of actual tested BW. I also plugged in the SIP provider's IP range as Alias and used that and set to 1 Mbit/s guaranteed BW.

Questions:

• After the wizard completes, I look into the WAN/qVoIP and it shows the bandwidth at 32 Kbit/s under the bandwidth. I do see the Service Curve (sc) is at 1Mb; is that what I should be looking at?

• If I set the "Guaranteed Bandwidth" to 1 MB/s, does that mean that 1 MB is not "gone" from my internet for everything other than SIP? If yes, how can I set it to only have priority and not a permanent slice of the pie?

• Is HFSC the shaper I should be using for this?

Please let me know if you need more info before being able to assist. I appreciate your help!

Steve Waller
Technigogo Technology Services
Austin, TX


[KOM]

I find PRIQ much easier to deal with for my VoIP config.  No worries about bandwidth guarantees.  The VoIP queue gets top priority always under all conditions.  Unless you have so many concurrent talkers that it would flood all you bandwidth, it generally won't be a problem.  If you really want to wrestle with HFSC, check out the A definitive, example-driven, HFSC Reference Thread thread

[BeerCan]

I second KOM
for voip traffic PRIQ is much easier to config and use.  There are a couple of threads here on how to configure it but it is pretty straight forward.  It works great in my setup where I value voip traffic over everything else.
here is my setup https://forum.pfsense.org/index.php?topic=79149.msg432062#msg432062