Rate limiting 1to1 devices?

[smithson83]

Hi Guys,

 

Just a quick one for advise / confirmation.

 

Do you, those who have a 1to1 scheme, rate limit the devices at the SSID level, or do you just QoS at the Firewall / Filter.

 

We currently have Y7&8 on the scheme and seeing the BB hammered (already in motion to upgrade the line), but I was wondering how many of you physically restrict each device, and what rate do you set it to.

 

At the minute I've left it unlimited, which is how it was when I started the Job. Now these devices don't (for the most part) touch our network except for filtering / monitoring etc. So their existence relies on the web, but I don't want them to just have as much bandwidth as they can grab, but also not to limit them to much.

 

Any advice welcome... Cheers

[FN-GM]

What wireless and filtering are you using please?

[smithson83]

We use Ruckus wireless, Lightspeed filtering and a Sonicwall.

[AlanD]

We do a 1:1 BYOD scheme...adopted at a time when we were able to update our ADSL line to FTTC (Costs us around £50 pm) and added a second (Virgin) 300Mb/s BB line (cost around £80 pm) into a smoothwall router.

 

We don't let students have any access to streaming services like Netflix, iplayer etc....(why would you?) and block HD access to YouTube....but allow YouTube with safesearch and with comments turned off etc... Oh...and we don't allow access to content servers (especially unmoderated ones) that iTunes use to stream stuff.... the result is that even when streaming youtube...its typically under 2Mb/s per device and our typical bandwidth use is well within our limits...although we are not a large school.

 

Thought I might have had to put quotas and restrictions...but either way they can be really annoying....so pleased not have done this. Ideally we would like "elastic" speed restrictions which only get to start be applied when say - broadband use starts to approach 90% - and then for them to be applied progressively...(in reality - of course that is what happens - but it affects all users and desktops - which is not what we would like - and what I am guessing you would like to avoid).

 

 

 

...but filters and routers are still very basic boxes when it comes to satisifying what we need today....even expensive ones like smoothwall...

 

Our wireless would also allow policies about bandwidth - but again they are crude - and not linked to overall bandwidth in use in school...and so would be applied completely unnecessarily at times of low usage.

 

Maybe a good option would be to allocate students wireless to a particular internet provision - like a Virgin BB connection which will provide speeds well in excess of 100Mb/s leased lines...for relatively little money....or their own FTTC line if you can't get cable..

[FN-GM]

Both Ruckus and Smoothwall will let you limit the bandwidth. I would do it on Ruckus under the advanced settings on the SSID settings.

 

What version of Firmware are you on? If it is the latest UI I can take some screenshots if you like?

[smithson83]

Thanks @AlanD, I'll double check all that with our Lightspeed setup. I'm pretty sure that most if not all of that is done (all setup before I started, but heard complaints from kids that they can't get to xyz, which is always a good sign).

Most of our traffic is generated from 365, which is only going to increase as we move more towards Teams and OneDrive etc.

We've have only recently started to see our 100mbps Gamma line hit 98-99Mbps on a regular basis, and have started the move up to 300Mbps on 1Gbps Bearer. We're also looking into a back up 100Mbps line to fall inline with mutterings of SLT wanting to migrate more services to Azure.

[smithson83]

Thanks @FN-GM I'm quite familiar with the Ruckus kit. I was more wondering about best practices and a rate to aim for etc.

[ADMaster]

My LEA / ISP has an Exinda. The nature of the device means no one user can have more than 1/8* of the bandwidth. Works well for most applications. It does mean I don't get full speed for off site backups and downloading from vlsc.

They have their own rules, but I can call up and ask for rules to apply to my circuit so that's nice.

I tested one on site, but could not justify it as the ISP had one. (about $12K a few years ago)

 

I do a little qos with the web filter to limit Apple and streaming radio / tv and byod devices.

I can check exact numbers if you like.

We have 1:1 chromebooks, a cachebox and do fine with bandwidth.

 

 

 

*In the required configuration for my ISP, greater then 1.5Gbs multi circuit (queue modes)

[mjk]

Our approach was to put on QoS and guarantee bandwidth for:

Google Classroom, Google Suite (docs etc), Specific Educational sites, External VPN connections.

Everything else is then regarded as lower priority, with things like BYOD updates at the bottom of the list.