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802.1P

Layer 2 QoS.

The 3-bit PCP portion of the 802.1q tag.

 0                   1                   2                   3
 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1
┌───────────────────────────────┬─────┬─┬───────────────────────┐
│    Tag Protocol Identifier    │ PCP │D│       VLAN ID         │
└───────────────────────────────┴─────┴─┴───────────────────────┘

Terms

Tag Protocol Identifier

  • Same as 802.1q
  • 0x8100
  • Same byte position as EtherType
  • Tells the equipment “expect an 802.1q header”

PCP — Priority Code Point

  • AKA, 802.1P
  • AKA, Priority Bits
  • AKA, Priority Tagging
  • AKA, Ethernet Class of Service
  • AKA, Trafic Class Expediting
  • AKA, CoS
  • Not zeros in this case

VLAN ID

Can be anything from 1 to 4094, but zero is reserved.

Vlan 0

  • “This frame doesn’t have a vlan”
  • “I wanted to use the L2 QoS features”

Seen in ISP networks.

DEI — Drop Eligible Indicator

  • Bit 19
    • On or off
    • Still normally off

References

Cisco - VLAN 0 Priority Tagging Support

Last Modified • Saturday, June 27, 2026. 1:25 am UTC+00:00 • Commit: 3baa651