How to set up client throttling on SSIDs?

Client throttling is the intentional limiting of an Internet service to regulate network traffic and provide fair throughput share to each client. You can set up throttling on Switches and SSIDs. To set up throttling on Switch ports, please read this article.

To configure throttling for a client, you need to:

1. Log into the Plasma Cloud console;
2. Select the organisation and network containing your Switch of interest from the top right menu;
3. Navigate to Settings > SSIDs > SSID name in the main menu on the left;
4. Activate Client Throttling by setting the toggle to Enabled;
5. Configure upload and download by using the slider or typing the desired throughput into the text field;
6. Click on the Save button.

Connections are bidirectional, therefore upload and download values cannot exceed a ratio of 1:10. Values may be automatically adjusted.

Each throughput value is a maximum allowed for each client connected to this specific SSID. It doesn't mean that the full throughput will actually be reached. 

The throughput obtained by a WiFi client depends on multiple factors, including:

• Internet uplink throughput;
• Number of concurrent WiFi clients;
• Client throttling configuration; and
• Mesh throughput (if applicable).

Examples of use cases:

A) Client throttling is set to 1 Mbps with an Internet uplink throughput of 100 Mbps. Each client throughput will be limited to 1 Mbps. Up to 100 concurrent clients can consume 1 Mbps throughput until the uplink throughput is maxed out.

B) Client throttling is set to 100 Mbps, but the Internet connection only provides a throughput of 10 Mbps. Thus the actual maximum throughput will be 10 Mbps throughout the network.

C) Client throttling is set to 10 Mbps with an Internet uplink throughput of 10 Mbps. As long as only a single client is connected that client can reach a maximum throughput of 10 Mbps. If there is more than one client connected to the same network, the throughput will be divided by the number of clients. E.g. 2 connected clients are limited to 5 Mbps each, 3 clients get 3.3 Mbps, etc.