When acquiring an internet router, you might have come across the term ‘airtime fairness’. It’s one of the features that make the latest internet routers competent in terms of offering quality network performance.
Airtime fairness is one of the amazing upgrades introduced that make users get better results from their networks. That’s what this article will be focusing on. We’re sharing the benefits of using airtime fairness, which will compel you to get it for your network.
But before that, you need to understand that airtime fairness can be enabled from your Wi-Fi router’s settings. However, your internet provider may not make those settings visible since the settings have already been set to support your internet plan. For this to occur, you need someone reliable so that you can expect their airtime fairness management to provide the necessary performance. We recommend Kinetic internet since it offers the best internet plans that accommodate all network requirements effectively. You can check out Kinetic internet to choose one for yourself and rest easy.
Now that it’s settled, let’s look at the benefits that airtime fairness offers:
Table Of Contents
Distributes Bandwidth Evenly
One of the many perks of using airtime fairness is that it allows one to manage bandwidths by distributing them evenly. In common cases, processes or tasks that require greater bandwidths or speed overcome the entire network.
This creates a deadlock for the remaining connected devices since they have to wait for the network’s resources to be available to them. However, this solution is mitigated when one uses airtime fairness.
Airtime fairness evenly distributes the bandwidth so that the connected devices don’t face starvation. When airtime fairness is enabled, it assesses the tasks with low network usage time. It then allows them to run, ultimately reaching completion and then exiting the queue.
Meanwhile, the tasks with higher bandwidth and network usage time then run smoothly. In other words, it optimizes the way processes are handled.
Powerful Devices Achieve Complete Performance
As highlighted earlier, airtime fairness ensures that processes get evenly distributed bandwidth, making the process queue run faster. However, it also enables powerful devices to reach their full potential in terms of processing since the network resources are completely available to them.
It’s one of the reasons why you should be using airtime fairness for intensive tasks such as gaming, database administration, etc. It moves minimal tasks out of the queue by allotting them the slot earlier, leaving more space for extensive tasks.
In addition, a custom airtime fairness rule will also set your extensive tasks on a priority, always creating more room for their processing.
Accommodates Devices in Large Spaces
One of the most commonly faced issues with large space networks is that users that are at a greater distance face starvation due to the unavailability of the resources. However, with airtime fairness, the users get access to resources equally.
It helps users with a greater distance from the primary gateway to access the network and work through it. Moreover, it minimizes starvation even when a powerful process or device is operating on the network.
Public Wi-Fi, café shop Wi-Fi, etc. use this approach to provide connected users access to the available internet. Here, it’s important to know that it doesn’t improve the overall speed of the network.
If the speed of the network is slow from the primary internet provider. then every connected device will have the same speed.
Custom Rules Make Processing Fast
We mentioned earlier that you can create custom rules within airtime fairness that will allow you to set a solid performance for some of the extensive tasks. However, it’s only possible when your internet provider allows it since most providers have their own airtime fairness rules set.
But if these rules are available to you, then you can create your customized rules. These rules will act accordingly, saving space and speed on the network for the said tasks. In other words, even with a congested network, you’ll be able to get a good performance.
However, again, you need to make sure that your primary internet connection is solid enough to support this rule. Since you’ll be dividing your network, you should have ample resources left to entertain other devices and users connecting to the network.
Helps with Legacy Devices
Legacy devices or devices that are old often lack the technical capability to offer better performance. A common example is the latest internet routers that are able to offer tri-band bandwidth whereas legacy routers offer only one band.
There are times when you’re unable to upgrade the devices due to current network functionality. In such cases, airtime fairness works best since it helps legacy devices to work better. It allocates the network resources in a manner that they don’t overtake the entire network yet complete their process.
In other words, it creates a queue of processes with a fixed time to use the network so that all processes operate without facing starvation.
Closing Thoughts
Airtime fairness brings several benefits and allows network administrators to benefit from it in terms of the network’s performance. Even though it carries some downsides (compatibility issues, performance issues), still, it gives a solid foundation on which your network can perform better.