[sdnog] Limit wifi bandwidth per user

[Philip Paeps]

[Please reply to to the list and do not top-post.  Thanks.]

On 2017-08-22 13:33:56 (+0200), Mujahid Abdellatif wrote:
> On 8/22/2017 2:28 PM, Philip Paeps wrote:
>> On 2017-08-22 13:20:09 (+0200), Mujahid Abdellatif wrote:
>>> how can i limit or control or assign bandwidth per user in a wifi 
>>> solution. is there any way that i can assign for example .5 Mbps 
>>> speed per user or assign 512 MB as a download per user on a wifi 
>>> scenario?
>>
>> That depends on your wireless infrastructure.  If you're using 
>> something like Cisco, Extreme, Ubiquiti or Mikrotik hardware, you can 
>> use their management software to set this us.  Alternatively, if 
>> you're running pfSense, you can also configure traffic shaping.
>>
>> What are you using?
>
> I'm not using any devices yet. I've been asked to provide a WiFi 
> solution that control the bandwidth per user for a small enterprise.

I would recommend Ubiquiti or Mikrotik.  In that order.  Ubiquiti is a 
bit more expensive but is easier to manage when you scale up.  Mikrotik 
is a bit cheaper but their management tools become a bit fiddly when you 
try to deploy them at scale.

> so i was thinking of an open source solution to control the bandwidth 
> per user. can i use any brands of WiFi with the pfSense to do so?

pfSense is something you run on a gateway.  It doesn't really care about 
the brand of access points you use.  It's open source (based on 
FreeBSD).

The advantage of using something like Ubiquiti is that you can control 
the bandwidth directly on the access point and stop clients that have 
gone over quota from even using (much) airtime.  pfSense sits deeper in 
your network and throttles users based on their IP address.  This makes 
it a bit easier to circumvent (though probably not a problem with 
non-technical users).

If you have existing access points, you could try out pfSense and see 
how far you get.  If you run into limitations, look into Ubiquiti or 
Mikrotik.

Cisco and Extreme Networks also have solutions but they're vastly more 
expensive.

Philip

-- 
Philip Paeps
Senior Reality Engineer
Ministry of Information