Gaming Optimization and Traffic Prioritization

[Masterlatvia]

Good evening Meraki Community! I'm in the process of optimizing my home Meraki network for gaming traffic. I have my network setup with some of the following hardware:

• Security/Firewall | MX100 
• Primary Switch | MS210-48LP
  • All workstations/computers directly hardwired to the MS210-48LP.
• AP | Numerous APs ranging from MR33 to MR56's. 

I'm seeking guidance on traffic shaping rules that prioritize ultra low latency connections for games like League of Legends, Counter Strike, Valorant, etc. In the dashboard under SD-WAN & traffic shaping (and secondarily on my APs), there are a number of default options for 'Gaming.' The gaming options mostly appear to be for digital download and distribution services (Steam, etc.), although it isn't completely clear what 'All Gaming' is defined by or if it includes actual games. I do see certain games like World Of Warcraft listed, however I expect those are mostly the distribution systems. I expect that this bucket category is mostly setup to allow admins to minimize the impact of these distribution platforms on more mission critical traffic. 

All that said, this network primarily services gaming computers. I would love guidance on learning if these QoS or DSCP tagging options are targeted to optimize traffic priority across Meraki hardware for gaming applications, not just the distribution services. How does 'Priority' factor into traffic shaping rules. Is there any benefit to tagging traffic using DSCP rules such as 46 (EF - Expedited Forwarding)? What strategies have others used to optimize their networks for gaming? Any guidance and wisdom from the Meraki Community would be greatly appreciated! Thank you!

[PhilipDAth · Accepted solution]

Probably the biggest thing you can do is use a wired connection.  It will always outperform WiFi latency wise.

Then there is your Internet connection itself.  A true fibre-based connection will outperform any kind of DSL or coax.

Anything you put into the priority queue will always be sent first.  You won't be able to create rules for "all gaming" as they all use different hosts and ports.  You could try targeting some specific games by finding out the IP addresses and ports they connect to.  Or you could try marking traffic from your specific machines and put them into the priority queue and dedicate those machines to gaming (this is probably easier).