The ProviderSpecific Buffer

[This is preliminary documentation and subject to change.]

The ProviderSpecific buffer provides applications with special QOS needs a mechanism to achieve their required quality of service. ProviderSpecific is of type WSABUF as defined by Windows Sockets 2 and is a member of the QUALITYOFSERVICE structure.

The standard mechanisms by which GQOS provides applications quality of service capabilities will fulfill the requirements for the majority of applications. In some situations, however, service quality parameters not available with standard GQOS mechanisms may need to be implemented. The ProviderSpecific buffer interface is provided for those situations.

The ProviderSpecific buffer specifically includes a length field and a pointer to a buffer, which may contain one or more (GQOS) objects. The format of each object is as follows:

• Each object includes a type field, which specifically identifies the object, followed by:
• A length field, which contains the length of the object exclusive of the header, followed by:
• The object data itself.

See GQOS Objects for more information.