Problems that occur when providing Internet for a large group of people.

There are situations where many people share one Internet connection at the same time. Some examples of a shared Internet connection are listed below.

• Hotel WiFi Internet.
• Community WiFi Internet service.
• Airport WiFi Internet.
• Etc.

Connecting many people to one Internet service is essential in the situations listed above, however there are problems that occur when doing this, here is another list, this time of potential problems.

• Any computer with a DoS virus can block access to the Internet.
• The access to the Internet becomes very slow for everyone.
• Individuals streaming videos will consume most of the available bandwidth.
• Too many people accessing the Internet at the same time causes network congestion.

The problems listed above can be reduced or eliminated by managing the Internet service. A Guest Internet controller manages the Internet service so that one Internet connection can be shared with many users.

An Internet connection has a maximum download and upload data speed. The data speed cannot be exceeded. When many people connect to the Internet, each demanding the maximum data speed then network congestion will occur.

What is Network Congestion? 

Network congestion occurs when the demand to access the Internet is greater than the data speed that the Internet connection permits. The network congestion process occurs over several steps.

• A group of people is using the Internet connection however the total data demand is lower than the maximum data speed of the Internet connection.
• More people connect to the Internet service and now the total data demand exceeds the maximum data speed of the Internet connection.
• People make web requests however the response is delayed.
• The protocol that connects the browser to the Web server is TCP/IP, which sends the request data packet and starts a timer then waits for the response.
• When the response data packet is delayed then the TCP/IP protocol timer reaches the limit (the response has “timed out”). The TCP/IP protocol then resends the data packet.
• Most other computers also “time out” and resend data packets.
• Simultaneous resending of data packets causes a catastrophic overload of the Internet connection and all computers are disconnected from the Internet, the browser displays the message “no Internet”, the TCP/IP stops resending data packets.
• When computers stop resending data packets the Internet connection recovers and computers can once again connect to the Internet.
• Unless the number of computers is reduced, or measures are taken to restrict data transmission then this congestion process will continue to repeat every few minutes.

Network congestion makes the Internet unusable. However there is a solution. Connect users to the Internet via a Guest Internet controller or a STAR kit that has a Guest Internet controller that imposes user and data limits on each computer connected. The Guest Internet controller that is shown in the next diagram imposes rules on the data transmission to prevent network congestion.

Identify the network “bottleneck" where the congestion will occur 

Network congestion will occur first at a link in the network where the data speed is the slowest. This is using the ISP connection, the connection between the local area network and the Internet. However for a local area network with many bridges, the slowest link might be inside the local area network. The next diagram illustrates the local area network with a connection to the Internet.

Detecting network congestion 

Network congestion can be identified before it occurs by monitoring the link with the lowest bandwidth. Monitoring software can be used to identify when network congestion might occur. The next diagram shows a data connection that is not congested; there is additional bandwidth available to connect more computers. The average utilization of the network capacity is 50%.

The next diagram illustrates a network connection that has close 100% capacity utilization.  The network connection shown is a candidate for network congestion.

How to eliminate network congestion 

A controller, such as the product manufactured by Guest Internet, is installed in the network to prevent network congestion. This is done using several features that are listed below.

• Limit the number of devices that are connected to the network.
• Set maximum download and upload data speeds for each device connected to the network.
• Set maximum download and upload data volume for each device connected to the network.
• Block practices that increase data volume, devices with a DoS virus, devices that are sharing a connection with others, etc.

The Guest Internet controller has administration features that impose the limits on each device that is connected to the network.

When control of one Internet connection is not enough 

There is one further method that can be used to eliminate network congestion, and that is to connect a second ISP to the local area network.

Connection of a second ISP requires the installation of a Guest Internet controller that has two WAN ports, such as the GIS-R10. The dual-WAN feature of the Guest Internet controller has two tasks.

• Load balancing, to ensure that the ISP connections are shared between all users.
• Fail-over; if one ISP connection fails then users are switched to the working connection.

The Guest Internet controller with two connections to the Internet is shown in the next diagram. This arrangement can double the available Internet bandwidth to eliminate network congestion.

More information 

Guest Internet can provide a lot of information for network design when a large number of people must be provided with access to the Internet. 

Contact us today for more information

WISPzone has everything you need to start and grow, please contact:

info@wispzone.com

Guest Internet makes the best products for community WiFi, please contact:

support@guest-internet.com