RFC 9956 - A Non-Queue-Building Per-Hop Behavior (NQB PHB) for Differentiated Services
- Status: Proposed Standard
- Published: May 2026
- Stream: IETF
- Updates: RFC 8325
- Recommended DSCP: 45 decimal, binary 101101, name NQB
Abstract
This RFC specifies the Non-Queue-Building Per-Hop Behavior (NQB PHB) for Differentiated Services. NQB provides a shallow-buffered best-effort service that complements the Default deep-buffered best-effort service, so smooth, low-data-rate, application-limited microflows can avoid delay, delay variation, and loss caused by capacity-seeking traffic. The PHB is intended primarily for bottlenecks in access networks, does not rely on prioritization, and can be deployed without aggregate rate policing.
Contents
- 1. Introduction
- 2. Requirements Language
- 3. Context
- 4. NQB Sender Requirements
- 5. NQB PHB Requirements
- 6. Operational Considerations
- 7. Mapping NQB to SDOs
- 8. IANA Considerations
- 9. Security Considerations
- 10. References
- Appendix A. DSCP Re-marking Policies
- Appendix B. Comparison with Expedited Forwarding
- Appendix C. Impact on Higher Layer Protocols
- Appendix D. Alternative Diffserv Codepoints
Related Resources
- Official Text: RFC 9956
- Official Page: RFC 9956 DataTracker
- Errata: RFC Editor Errata