What bandwidth management technique slows low-priority packets to allow high-priority traffic, commonly called packet shaping?

• A. Traffic Shaping
• B. Bandwidth Throttling
• C. Quality of Service
• D. Packet Policing

Answer: (A)

Prioritizing traffic by controlling the transmission rate is done through traffic shaping, a technique that delays lower-priority packets to keep bandwidth available for higher-priority flows. By queuing and smoothing out bursts, traffic shaping ensures critical applications, like voice or video, get the needed bandwidth while less important traffic waits its turn. This is essentially what is meant by packet shaping. Bandwidth throttling describes simply capping overall speed, not the deliberate pacing of specific classes of traffic. Quality of Service is the broader policy framework that can include shaping, policing, and other methods. Packet policing enforces a rate by dropping or re-marking packets rather than delaying them to shape the flow.