Implementing Quality of Service (QoS) on a MikroTik router is essential to manage bandwidth and prioritize network traffic, ensuring that critical applications have the necessary amount of resources to function properly.

We explain how you can configure QoS on a MikroTik router using the Queue Tree to prioritize traffic:

1. Identify Traffic

First, it's important to identify and classify the type of traffic you want to prioritize. You can do this by using Mangle to mark packets based on their type, for example VoIP, streaming, or web browsing:

/ip firewall mangle
add chain=prerouting action=mark-packet new-packet-mark=voip passthrough=yes protocol=udp port=5060
add chain=prerouting action=mark-packet new-packet-mark=streaming passthrough=yes protocol=tcp port=1935

2. Create Queues

After marking traffic, you need to create queues to manage how the bandwidth is distributed. The Queue Tree allows you to create a hierarchical structure of queues:

/queue tree
add name="global-total" parent=global max-limit=20M
add name="voip" packet-mark=voip parent=global-total priority=1 queue=default-small limit-at=2M max-limit=5M
add name="streaming" packet-mark=streaming parent=global-total priority=8 queue=default-small limit-at=1M max-limit=3M

3. Set Priorities

In queues, you can assign priorities and limit the minimum and maximum bandwidth. Lower priorities in MikroTik indicate a higher priority in traffic, which means that priority=1 it is taller than priority=8.

4. Adjust Bandwidth

Make sure you adjust the bandwidth limits (limit-at y max-limit) according to your needs and total capacity of your Internet link.

5. Monitoring and Adjustments

Monitor queue performance and adjust as necessary. This may include changing priorities, adjusting bandwidth limits, or modifying mangrove flags to improve traffic management:

/queue tree print
/ip firewall mangle print

6. Continuous Optimization

Initial QoS configuration may require subsequent adjustments based on actual traffic behavior and changing network needs. Regularly monitor traffic and make adjustments to optimize performance.

Implementing QoS on a MikroTik router using Queue Tree and Mangle is an effective way to ensure that critical network resources are distributed fairly and efficiently, improving user experience and network operational efficiency.