What is a characteristic of video traffic that governs QoS requirements for video?

Constant Bit Rate (CBR) is less common for modern compressed video; it's more characteristic of uncompressed video or very specific streaming profiles, but VBR is the predominant characteristic.

Voice and video have distinct characteristics and therefore different, though often related, QoS requirements. Voice is very sensitive to delay and jitter but has a lower bandwidth requirement, while video is more tolerant of delay but demands significantly more bandwidth and can be sensitive to packet loss.

While voice and video traffic are indeed different, they do not have the same QoS requirements. Their distinct characteristics necessitate different QoS treatments, priorities, and bandwidth allocations.

Video traffic, especially compressed video, typically exhibits a Variable Bit Rate (VBR) because the amount of data needed to represent frames changes based on scene complexity, motion, and compression algorithms. This variability means video needs a QoS strategy that can accommodate bursts of traffic while minimizing latency and jitter.