A system and method configures quality-of-service (QoS) in a segment of a network that has multiple segments with an intermediate device between the segments. The network may be a home network for the transmission of audio-video traffic streams between a media server or source, like a personal computer (PC), and a media renderer or sink, like a digital TV, with the intermediate device being a router, bridge or hub connected to its own network segment and located between the source and sink. One of the network devices contains a QoS parameter holder (QPH). After QoS has been configured in the source and sink and the traffic stream established, the intermediate device detects the traffic stream and determines that it needs to set up QoS. The intermediate device queries the QPH with a traffic stream identifier. The QPH finds the traffic descriptor that matches the traffic stream identifier and returns to the intermediate device the traffic descriptor that includes the QoS parameters. The intermediate device then uses the QoS parameters to configure QoS in its network segment.