Traffic Shaping with Queues and Priorities

After 15 years of 'experimental' traffic shaping with ALTQ, the results are in. A new traffic shaping system, with fewer algorithms to choose from, has been introduced to replace the aging expermental code.

The first part of the new system, always-on priorities (see Per Rule Priority - prio), was introduced in OpenBSD 5.0.

The rest of the new queue system (also dubbed newqueue) debuted in OpenBSD 5.5. In OpenBSD 5.6, ALTQ has already been removed. There is no way back.

During the grace period (while you're running OpenBSD 5.5), there is one simple trick you can use until you take the plunge: The oldqueue trick.