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KUppiano
Karl Uppiano
join:2003-02-02
Ferndale, WA

KUppiano

Member

QOS and Bandwidth Sharing Fairness

I have a network with about 10 computers on it. We all share the same 3Mbps DSL connection. Don't start by telling me we need more bandwidth. That may be true, but it is not directly related to my question. The limited bandwidth is not normally a problem except when one of the users starts Netflix or a big download. Then that machine hogs the connection, and all the other computers get frozen out.

Once Netflix or a major download gets its hooks in, it's as if no other user can do anything reasonably. I'd set Netflix to a lower priority, but Netflix uses HTTP, so setting that to "bulk rate" would degrade browsing for everyone.

I have DD-WRT installed on my router, and I have experimented with various QOS settings, but the tool seems more oriented towards prioritizing a particular type of traffic over another, rather than equitably sharing the limited resource equally among all clients. I want the latter more than the former.

DD-WRT QOS allows setting caps on each client, but that is not what I want either. If only one machine needs the bandwidth, I want it to get the full 3Mbps. If all ten machines need the bandwidth, I want them all to get 0.3Mbps (i.e., I want them all to run equally poorly). I have tried to grok the advanced QOS scripting features and so on, but I haven't figured out any way to accomplish this.
HELLFIRE
MVM
join:2009-11-25

HELLFIRE

MVM

said by KUppiano:

the tool seems more oriented towards prioritizing a particular type of traffic over another, rather than equitably sharing the limited resource equally among all clients. I want the latter more than the former.

DD-WRT QOS wiki here -- »www.dd-wrt.ca/wiki/index ··· Service; short ver is it looks like
you're SOL from a capabilities perspective. Just out of curiousity, have you tried setting things to
"bulk rate" for a day or two and getting user feedback on how things are performing? I can't see a
one or two second delay in loading a webpage as reason to complain, but then again, having been
in IT support long enough, some peoples' expectations of how the internet should perform is not
what I'd call reasonable...

Also, with the background you've given on your situation, I'm personally wondering about a hardware
limitation being the issue than an internet bandwidth limitation here -- namely the gear you're running
DD-WRT on simply being maxed out from a CPU, memory, etc. perspective.

My 00000010bits.

Regards
KUppiano
Karl Uppiano
join:2003-02-02
Ferndale, WA

KUppiano

Member

Thanks for the reply. I have FTP, napster, and other P2P services set to bulk, but not HTTP. Which protocols did you have in mind for the bulk rate treatment? I'd be willing to try that setting and report back if I had a better idea what the objective would be.

When Netflix is playing, I can view the charts on the DD-WRT bandwidth page. I see it flat-lined (more or less) at 3Mbps, and pretty much nothing else gets through.

The DD-WRT web console is plenty responsive, so I doubt that the processor is maxed out. The client experience for other users isn't just a two or three second delay. It takes an annoyingly long time for email messages to download when you click on them (especially IMAP). Of course, you can forget anything else that uses streaming content (YouTube or Pandora) to run at all acceptably, even if they only need a fraction of the 3Mbps. As I say, I'd appreciate if the one client could not hog all the bandwidth.
HELLFIRE
MVM
join:2009-11-25

HELLFIRE to KUppiano

MVM

to KUppiano
said by KUppiano:

It takes an annoyingly long time for email messages to download when you click on them (especially IMAP).

I'd use this statement to (re)design your QOS config to put HTTP under the BULK classification of traffic -- you've
just said the apps using the HTTP protocol are clearly hogging all the bandwidth to the detriment of the more
business critical traffic -- and then bump IMAP in priority.

Side concern, I'm also wondering for Netflix, Youtube, etc. is everyone deliberately choosing the 720p quality streams
when viewing, in which case you and the business should consider upping the 3Mbps pipe if ppl will not limit themselves
to the lower quality streams, or restrict access to Netflix, Youtube, etc from a company policy perspective.

Also, responsiveness of the web console is not an indicator of the CPU / memory utilization, and I can't prove it
either way. Just that that's the sense I'm getting given the symptoms you've given so far, KUppiano See Profile

Anyways, just my further 00000010bits on this

Regards

kontos
xyzzy
join:2001-10-04
West Henrietta, NY

kontos to KUppiano

Member

to KUppiano
said by KUppiano:

When Netflix is playing, I can view the charts on the DD-WRT bandwidth page. I see it flat-lined (more or less) at 3Mbps, and pretty much nothing else gets through.

That sounds a little bit like the upstream capacity may be saturated.
said by KUppiano:

As I say, I'd appreciate if the one client could not hog all the bandwidth.

I'd be tempted to cap everybody at 2.5 (or so) Mbps if that's where the problem is. That way there should always be a little bit left for the next person that does something on the network.

toby
Troy Mcclure
join:2001-11-13
Seattle, WA

toby to KUppiano

Member

to KUppiano
Take a look at using pfsense, it makes traffic shaping very easy.

»doc.pfsense.org/index.ph ··· ng_Guide