# Using bandwidth management and traffic prioritization

You can use bandwidth management and traffic prioritization to ensure critical communications, prepare for network link failures, and restrict non-essential traffic.

Bandwidth management and traffic prioritization are used for the following purposes:

- To ensure the quality of service for time-critical communications during occasional traffic peaks. Even if there is ample bandwidth available, short periods of congestion can degrade the quality of some types of communications.
- To prepare for severe congestion, caused by the loss of network links when there are technical problems. In a Multi-Link environment, you can have several NetLinks. Ideally, the throughput of these links is large enough that each link can alone handle the traffic. However, if it is not a viable option, it might become necessary to choose which connections are given priority if network connections are lost.
- To reduce the total bandwidth needed, if it is not possible to increase throughput of the network links or add new links. For example, important services (such as VPN connections and clients’ connections to extranets) can be given priority over Internet browsing (all HTTP connections or based on IP addresses).