Bandwidth Control per Device using Access Gateways

Per device control of bandwidth increases the ability of visitors to access the Internet and uses the bandwidth that is available, without a small group of users hogging the existing bandwidth. Bandwidth caps allow for a balanced utilization by limiting each devices total access to bandwidth. Nomadix Access Gateways can group specific devices together under a single bandwidth cap - for instance, a single user with multiple devices is given a single umbrella cap for all the devices. Caps can be defined and applied flexibility to create tiered pricing models that allow you to monetize the bandwidth provided to your visitors. In addition, individual users can self provision and determine if they would like a larger amount of available bandwidth.

Nomadix Access Gateways offer various bandwidth management capabilities offering varying degrees of sophistication.

Nomadix Access Gateways can easily be configured to limit the upstream and downstream bandwidth consumption of each device (MAC address) or a group of devices (a group of MAC addresses). This can be done programmatically through a billing plan selection, RADIUS-based authentication process, XML-based API, or manually via the web management interface (WMI). Different or asymmetric values for upstream and downstream limits can be configured, and there are provisions in place to modify the bandwidth limits on the fly without any service interruption to users.

Grouping multiple devices together provides hoteliers and public network operators a way to limit operational expenses as more and more visitors travel with multiple devices including smartphones, tablets, laptops, media boxes, and game consoles.

The flexible bandwidth limits also enable service differentiation for VIP visitors, loyalty program members and premium users.

There are times when the number of users and bandwidth usage might exceed the total site capacity - also known as over subscription.

We at Nomadix realize that not all public network operators may want to limit the individual users and their devices to an artificial lower value and under-utilize the available capacity.

In saturated networks, Weighted Fair Queuing makes it possible for network operators and managers to provide quality service to regular users and ensure that demanding devices and users play fair. This is done by treating “device and group bandwidth limits” as ratios instead of absolute limits when line capacity is being utilized to the maximum.

Weighted fair queuing also ensures that premium users or loyalty members get better quality of services compared to free users.

While weighted fair queuing ensures that no single user can consume entire available link capacity and network resources are distributed fairly amongst all devices and users, there may be situations where a group or class of users requires prioritized access over others and a minimum bandwidth allocation must be guaranteed to that class/group.

Using class-based queuing, Nomadix Access Gateways enable network operators and managers to configure up to 128 prioritized classes of users. Each class definition has three characteristics:

1. Maximum allowed bandwidth for upstream and downstream
2. Minimum guaranteed bandwidth for upstream and downstream
3. Priority of that class (from 1 to 24)

With proper configuration, network managers and operators can ensure that higher priority classes do not have to compete with lower priority classes, and that lower priority classes have access to at least the minimum bandwidth.

A typical web application in today’s world opens up multiple connections to a server and displays a page dynamically while content is still being downloaded. For example, a device attempting to browse www.cnn.com typically opens 50 different connections to CNN and its affiliate servers.

This poses a challenge for traditional load-balancing appliances that utilize connection balancing techniques. If one of the links is down, the browser will not be able to load the entire content of the page. Nomadix Access Gateways, on the other hand, solve this problem by balancing devices instead of connections. Only the devices (and applications) on a failed link would notice the disruption in service instead of every user on the network.

The device-aware, load-balancing capabilities of Nomadix Access Gateways ensure that only a fraction of users would notice the failure of a link and provide a better user experience overall. Affected devices and users are immediately switched over to a working ISP/WAN link, minimizing the impact from the failed ISP/WAN link.