Windows Rally

Windows Rally is a set of technologies from Microsoft intended to simplify the setup and maintenance of wired and wireless network-connected devices. They aim to increase reliability and security of connectivity for users who connect the devices to the Internet or to computers running Microsoft Windows. These technologies provide control of network Quality of Service (QoS) and diagnostics for data sharing, communications, and entertainment. Windows Rally technologies provide provisioning for the following devices:

Windows Rally includes the following set of technologies:

The Link Layer Topology Discovery (LLTD) protocol enables applications to discover devices and determine network topology. In Windows Vista, it enables a graphical view of all the devices in the network on the Network Map. For Windows XP computers to appear on the Network Map, the LLTD Responder must be downloaded and installed. Devices that provide audio or video playback or that are bandwidth sensitive can implement the QoS Extension part of the protocol so that they receive prioritized streams and that changes in available bandwidth have less impact on the playback experience.

Windows Vista includes qWAVE, a pre-configured Quality of Service API for time dependent multimedia data, such as audio or video streams. qWAVE uses different packet priority schemes for real-time flows (such as multimedia packets) and best-effort flows (such as file downloads or e-mails) to ensure that real time data gets delayed as little as possible, while providing a high quality channel for other data packets. qWAVE-enabled applications together with devices that implement the LLTD QoS Extensions aim to improve an end user's experience of streaming video by prioritizing traffic and reducing the effects of network-related transient issues.

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