350-501 Automation and Quality of Service — 25 Questions

Question 1

A SP wants to automate the deployment of QoS policies on numerous PE routers using NETCONF. Which YANG module is most appropriate for modeling the QoS policy-map configuration?

Accepted Answer

Cisco-IOS-XR-qos-ma-cfg. The Cisco-IOS-XR-qos-ma-cfg YANG module is specifically designed to model QoS policy-map configurations on Cisco IOS XR platforms. Since the SP is using NETCONF to automate QoS policies on PE routers running IOS XR, this native module provides the exact data model for defining class-maps, policy-maps, and service policies, aligning with the task's requirement.

Answer

ietf-interfaces

Answer

Cisco-IOS-XR-ip-tcp-yang

Answer

ietf-netconf-acm

Question 2

A service provider is implementing QoS on an MPLS network to support voice, video, and data traffic. Which queuing mechanism provides the lowest latency for real-time traffic?

Accepted Answer

LLQ. LLQ (Low Latency Queuing) is the correct choice because it provides a strict priority queue specifically designed for real-time traffic like voice and video. By placing delay-sensitive packets into a dedicated priority queue that is serviced before all other queues, LLQ ensures minimal and predictable latency, which is essential for maintaining voice quality in an MPLS network.

Answer

FIFO

Answer

WRED

Answer

CBWFQ

Question 3

An engineer is troubleshooting a QoS policy on a Cisco router. The policy is intended to mark voice traffic with DSCP EF and video traffic with DSCP AF41. After applying the policy, voice traffic is correctly marked, but video traffic is marked as DSCP 0. What is the most likely cause?

Accepted Answer

The class map for video traffic does not match the traffic correctly.. The most common reason for video traffic being marked as DSCP 0 (default) while voice traffic is correctly marked is that the class map for video traffic fails to match the intended packets. This could be due to an incorrect match statement (e.g., using the wrong ACL, protocol, or DSCP value) or a misconfigured match criterion that does not capture the video flows. Since voice traffic is marked correctly, the policy itself is applied and functional, isolating the issue to the video class map's matching logic.

Answer

The video traffic is being policed and dropped.

Answer

The trust boundary is set to 'trust dscp' and the incoming video traffic is not marked.

Answer

The policy is not applied to the correct interface direction.

Question 4

A service provider uses an MPLS-TE tunnel to carry voice and data traffic. The tunnel is experiencing packet loss during congestion. The engineer wants to ensure that voice traffic receives guaranteed bandwidth and low latency while data traffic uses remaining bandwidth. Which QoS configuration should be applied on the tunnel interface?

Accepted Answer

LLQ with a priority queue for voice and a default class for data. Low Latency Queuing (LLQ) allows you to place voice traffic into a strict priority queue, ensuring guaranteed bandwidth and low latency during congestion, while the default class uses CBWFQ to allocate remaining bandwidth to data traffic. This matches the requirement of prioritizing voice without starving data entirely, as the priority queue is policed to prevent voice from consuming all bandwidth.

Answer

CBWFQ with bandwidth allocation for voice and data

Answer

Policing on voice traffic to limit its rate

Answer

Shaping on the tunnel to 75% of bandwidth with no queuing

Question 5

An engineer is configuring MPLS VPN and needs to ensure that customer traffic is automatically marked with a specific QoS policy based on the VPN. Which method should be used to propagate QoS markings across the MPLS network?

Accepted Answer

Use MPLS EXP bits to mark traffic at the ingress PE and map to QoS at egress. In an MPLS VPN environment, QoS markings must be preserved across the MPLS backbone. MPLS EXP (Experimental) bits are the standard mechanism to carry QoS information within the MPLS label stack. At the ingress PE, customer traffic is classified and marked with the appropriate EXP bits based on the VPN or other criteria. The egress PE then uses these EXP bits to map traffic to the correct QoS policy, ensuring end-to-end QoS treatment.

Answer

Use 802.1p CoS on the CE-PE link and preserve it across the MPLS backbone

Answer

Use IP ToS bits to mark traffic and rely on MPLS to preserve them

Answer

Set DSCP at the ingress PE and preserve it across the MPLS backbone

Question 6

A network administrator configures a class map to match VoIP traffic using 'match ip dscp ef' on a Cisco router. However, the QoS policy is not applying the expected marking to VoIP packets. What is a possible reason?

Accepted Answer

The VoIP traffic is not marked with DSCP EF from the source.. The 'match ip dscp ef' command in the class map checks the DSCP value already present in the incoming VoIP packets. If the source device (e.g., an IP phone) does not mark the packets with DSCP EF (46), the class map will not match, and the QoS policy will not apply the expected marking. The policy can only re-mark packets that are already matched by the class map.

Answer

The policy is applied in the output direction instead of input.

Answer

The policy is applied to the wrong interface.

Answer

The class map uses the wrong match type.

Question 7

Which TWO QoS mechanisms are used to provide congestion avoidance? (Choose two.)

Accepted Answer

RED. RED (Random Early Detection) and WRED (Weighted Random Early Detection) are congestion avoidance mechanisms that proactively drop packets before a queue becomes full, signaling TCP senders to reduce their transmission rate. Unlike congestion management tools (like CBWFQ or LLQ) that queue packets during congestion, RED/WRED monitor average queue depth and drop packets probabilistically to prevent tail drops and global TCP synchronization.

Answer

Policing

Answer

CBWFQ

Answer

LLQ

Question 8

Which THREE statements about implementing QoS in an MPLS VPN environment are correct? (Choose three.)

Accepted Answer

DSCP values can be set at the PE router to classify customer traffic into different classes.. On a PE router, DSCP values can be set or remarked to classify incoming customer traffic into distinct service classes. This classification is performed at the ingress edge of the MPLS VPN network, allowing the provider to apply appropriate per-hop behaviors (PHBs) before the traffic is label-switched.

Answer

QoS policies cannot be applied to MPLS interfaces due to label encapsulation.

Answer

802.1p CoS marking is preserved across the MPLS backbone by default.

Question 9

Based on the exhibit, which statement is true about the QoS policy?

Accepted Answer

The VOICE class is allocated a strict priority queue with a bandwidth limit of 10% of the interface bandwidth.. The exhibit shows a QoS policy where the VOICE class is configured with the 'priority' command and a bandwidth statement of 10 percent. In Cisco IOS, the 'priority' command under a class map creates a strict priority queue (LLQ), and the bandwidth percentage defines the maximum amount of interface bandwidth that can be used by this queue, ensuring low-latency treatment for voice traffic. Therefore, option C is correct.

Answer

The class-default will use weighted fair queuing (WFQ).

Answer

The VIDEO class will be limited to 30% of the total interface bandwidth.

Answer

The VIDEO class is guaranteed at least 30% of the total interface bandwidth.

Question 10

A service provider is deploying QoS on a Cisco ASR 9000 router to support a triple-play service (voice, video, data) over an Ethernet access network. The network engineer must ensure that voice traffic (EF) is prioritized, video traffic (AF41) is treated with low loss, and data traffic (default) gets best-effort service. Additionally, the engineer must implement a hierarchical QoS policy to shape the aggregate subscriber traffic to 100 Mbps on a GigabitEthernet interface, with the following per-class bandwidth allocations: voice 10 Mbps, video 40 Mbps, and data 50 Mbps. During testing, voice packets are being dropped under congestion, and video traffic is experiencing jitter. The current QoS configuration is as follows:

policy-map CHILD
 class VOICE
  priority level 1
  police rate 10 mbps
 class VIDEO
  bandwidth remaining ratio 40
 class DATA
  bandwidth remaining ratio 50
!
policy-map PARENT
 class class-default
  shape average 100 mbps
  service-policy CHILD
!

Which action should the engineer take to resolve the issues while maintaining the design objectives?

Accepted Answer

Remove the police from the voice class and add 'priority level 1' without police; this ensures voice is priority queued without dropping.. The current configuration uses a police rate of 10 Mbps under the voice priority class, which causes voice packets to be dropped when they exceed that rate, even though priority queuing should guarantee low latency. Removing the police and keeping 'priority level 1' allows voice traffic to be strictly prioritized without a hard rate limit, ensuring no drops for voice while still allowing the parent shaper to enforce the aggregate 100 Mbps. This resolves the voice drops and, by preventing voice from being policed, reduces jitter for video traffic that might otherwise be affected by bursty voice drops.

Answer

Change the video class to 'priority level 2' to give it preferential treatment over data.

Answer

Add a 'police' to the video class with a CIR of 40 Mbps and 'conform-action transmit exceed-action drop' to protect voice.

Answer

Change the voice class to use 'bandwidth remaining percent 10' and remove the police.

Question 11

A service provider is designing a QoS policy for a multi-service MPLS VPN network that carries voice, video, and data traffic. The network uses DiffServ and MPLS EXP markings. The design must ensure that voice traffic is given priority over video and data, while video traffic should have better treatment than data but not at the expense of voice. The provider plans to use a hierarchical QoS (HQoS) policy at the PE-CE interfaces. Which configuration approach best meets these requirements?

Accepted Answer

Apply a parent policy with a shape for the total bandwidth and a child policy with LLQ for voice and CBWFQ for video and data.. Hierarchical QoS (HQoS) allows the service provider to enforce a total bandwidth shape at the parent level while using a child policy to apply LLQ for voice (ensuring strict priority) and CBWFQ for video and data (ensuring video gets better treatment than data without starving voice). This meets the requirement that video should not degrade voice, as the parent shape prevents any single class from monopolizing the link, and the child policy’s LLQ guarantees voice priority over all other traffic.

Answer

Mark voice traffic with EXP 5, video with EXP 4, and data with EXP 0, and rely on the core to prioritize based on EXP.

Answer

Use a single-level policy with LLQ for voice and video together, and CBWFQ for data.

Answer

Apply class-based shaping to each traffic class separately on the interface.

Question 12

Which TWO statements accurately describe the behavior of the QoS policy shown in the exhibit?

Accepted Answer

During congestion, video traffic is allocated 30% of the remaining bandwidth after voice is served.. The policy uses the 'bandwidth remaining percent' command under the video class, which allocates 30% of the remaining bandwidth after the voice class (which is in a strict priority queue) has been served. This is the standard behavior for class-based weighted fair queuing (CBWFQ) when a priority queue is present: the priority traffic is serviced first, and then the remaining bandwidth is distributed according to the 'bandwidth remaining percent' values assigned to the non-priority classes.

Answer

The policy shapes the total output traffic to 30 Mbps.

Answer

Video traffic is placed in a strict priority queue.

Answer

The policy polices voice traffic to a maximum of 30% of the interface bandwidth.

Question 13

A service provider has deployed a new MPLS L3VPN service for a customer with multiple sites. The customer reports intermittent voice quality issues during peak hours. The provider uses a DiffServ QoS model with MPLS EXP markings. The PE routers apply the following policy on the customer-facing interfaces:

policy-map CUSTOMER-OUT
 class VOICE
  priority percent 10
  set mpls experimental topmost 5
 class VIDEO
  bandwidth remaining percent 30
  set mpls experimental topmost 4
 class DATA
  bandwidth remaining percent 70
  set mpls experimental topmost 0

The core network has a simple policy that maps EXP 5 to PQ, EXP 4 to a low-latency queue, and EXP 0 to best effort. The provider monitors the network and finds that the PE-CE interfaces are not congested (average utilization is 40%), but the voice packets are experiencing jitter. The customer's voice traffic is about 5% of the link capacity. Which action is most likely to reduce the jitter?

Accepted Answer

Add a police command under the VOICE class to limit voice traffic to 5% and shape the priority queue.. The voice traffic is only 5% of link capacity, but the priority percent 10 command allows up to 10% of the link to be treated as priority. During peak hours, if other traffic (e.g., video or data) bursts and exceeds the remaining bandwidth, the priority queue can still be policed implicitly by the scheduler, but jitter arises because the priority queue is not rate-limited. Adding a police command under the VOICE class to limit voice to 5% and shaping the priority queue ensures that voice traffic does not exceed its actual rate, preventing microbursts that cause jitter in the priority queue.

Answer

Configure the core routers to map EXP 5 to a low latency queue instead of PQ.

Answer

Increase the priority percent to 20 for voice traffic.

Answer

Change the set mpls experimental topmost to set ip dscp ef for voice.

Question 14

Drag and drop the steps to configure MPLS LDP on a Cisco router into the correct order.

Accepted Answer

Step 1: Enable CEF (ip cef), Step 2: Configure LDP router-id (mpls ldp router-id), Step 3: Enable MPLS on interfaces (mpls ip). MPLS LDP requires CEF, enabling MPLS on interfaces, and setting the LDP router-id.

Answer

Step 1: Enable MPLS on interfaces (mpls ip), Step 2: Enable CEF (ip cef), Step 3: Configure LDP router-id (mpls ldp router-id)

Answer

Step 1: Configure LDP router-id (mpls ldp router-id), Step 2: Enable CEF (ip cef), Step 3: Enable MPLS on interfaces (mpls ip)

Answer

Step 1: Enable CEF (ip cef), Step 2: Enable MPLS on interfaces (mpls ip), Step 3: Configure LDP router-id (mpls ldp router-id)

Question 15

Drag and drop the steps to configure a standard ACL on a Cisco router into the correct order.

Accepted Answer

Enter global configuration mode, then create the standard access list, then enter interface configuration mode, then apply the access list to the interface.. Standard ACL configuration requires creating the ACL and applying it to an interface in the appropriate direction.

Answer

Enter global configuration mode, then enter interface configuration mode, then create the standard access list, then apply the access list to the interface.

Answer

Create the standard access list, then enter global configuration mode, then enter interface configuration mode, then apply the access list to the interface.

Answer

Enter global configuration mode, then create the standard access list, then apply the access list to the interface, then enter interface configuration mode.

Question 16

Match each BGP attribute to its category or purpose.

Accepted Answer

Local Preference: Well-known discretionary attribute used for outbound traffic influence. Correct matches associate BGP attributes with their standard categories and purposes. Local Preference and Next Hop are well-known discretionary and mandatory respectively, while MED is optional nontransitive. Common confusions include misclassifying attribute categories or purposes.

Answer

Local Preference: Optional transitive attribute used to tag routes

Answer

AS Path: Optional nontransitive attribute used for inbound traffic influence

Question 17

Match each network automation tool to its primary use.

Accepted Answer

Ansible: An agentless automation tool that uses YAML playbooks for configuration management and application deployment.. These are key automation and programmability tools for service provider networks.

Answer

Ansible: A configuration management tool that uses a declarative language and a client-server model.

Answer

Puppet: A tool that uses YAML playbooks for automation.

Question 18

A service provider needs to prioritize voice traffic over best-effort data in an MPLS VPN. The PE router uses a QoS policy applied to the ingress interface. Which action ensures that voice packets are marked with the correct DSCP value before entering the MPLS core?

Accepted Answer

Apply a policy-map that matches voice traffic using a class-map and the 'set dscp ef' action.. The question specifies that the PE router must mark voice packets with the correct DSCP value before they enter the MPLS core. The 'set dscp ef' action in a policy-map applied to the ingress interface explicitly sets the DSCP field to EF (46) for voice traffic matched by a class-map, ensuring proper classification and treatment across the MPLS network. This is the standard method for marking IP packets at the edge before MPLS encapsulation.

Answer

Configure the ingress interface with 'mls qos trust dscp' to preserve the customer marking.

Answer

Use a policy-map with the 'set mpls experimental 5' command.

Answer

Apply a police action to drop traffic exceeding the voice bandwidth.

Question 19

A network operator deploys a QoS policy on a route reflector to classify traffic based on BGP community values. However, the policy is not matching the intended traffic. Which is the most likely cause?

Accepted Answer

The class-map uses a match statement referencing BGP community values, which are not visible at the QoS classification stage.. BGP community values are exchanged as part of the BGP routing update and are stored in the BGP table, but they are not carried in the IP packet header. QoS classification in Cisco IOS operates on fields within the Layer 2 or Layer 3 packet header (e.g., DSCP, IP precedence, CoS) and cannot inspect BGP attributes like community values. Therefore, a class-map using a match statement for BGP communities will never match traffic at the QoS classification stage, making this the most likely cause of the policy not working.

Answer

The policy-map is applied to the wrong interface.

Answer

The service-policy is applied in the wrong direction (input vs output).

Answer

The class-default class is consuming all traffic.

Question 20

An SP uses BGP FlowSpec to mitigate DDoS attacks. They also want to rate-limit the traffic per FlowSpec rule. Which configuration is required to enable policing within a FlowSpec action?

Accepted Answer

Include the 'rate-limit' action in the FlowSpec rule using the 'action' clause.. BGP FlowSpec allows the inclusion of a 'rate-limit' action within the FlowSpec rule's 'action' clause to enforce policing. This action directly applies a traffic rate limit (in bits per second) to the matched flow, enabling DDoS mitigation without requiring external QoS policies or MPLS TE reservations.

Answer

Configure MPLS TE bandwidth reservation for the FlowSpec routes.

Answer

Use policy-based routing (PBR) to set QoS parameters.

Answer

Apply a QoS policy-map to the interface and match the FlowSpec destination.