Enable Airtime Fairness – What It Is And How To Enable It?

Airtime Fairness has been giving everyone better internet speed and now you can see if your router brand supports this protocol.

When this feature is enabled you are supposed to get higher speeds and more predictable internet experience while reducing high ping rates. But what is this technology and when should people enable it on their routers?

Many internet users of whom have the latest routers are unaware of the Airtime Fairness feature, even if the option is already enabled on their home router, and so we’ve compiled a handy summary of the feature and this guide will cover everything you need to know about enabling or disabling it for your Wifi devices.

TL;DR about Airtime Fairness

Advanced Router Technologies (ART) developed a proprietary router technology to ensure that real-time internet applications perform smoothly and avoid problems such as packet loss or jitter.

The Airtime Fairness feature calls on the routers to modify the bandwidth distribution to increase the quality of VoIP, gaming, and video streaming, improving their performance.

This setting ensures each device connected to your home network receives fair and equal access to the bandwidth, regardless of the device’s internet usage or demand at a specific time. This, therefore, means that no device will have to overflow the bandwidth available to it and this increases the consistency and predictability of your internet experience.

You’ll find that with the typical router settings, the first device to connect to a network is given priority in terms of bandwidth allocation, while the other devices connected to the same router will have to share the bandwidth in line with the amount of usage that the device is generating. And the more powerful devices tend to hog more bandwidth and so they get to consume more of the transfer speeds leaving less speed for the other devices.

For example, if a person is uploading a large file onto the internet, this will take up most of their bandwidth and will consequently reduce the bandwidth available to other devices connected to that router, especially when that person is doing it at peak times.

Airtime Fairness Supported Routers

If you’re in the market for a new router and want to ensure that it supports Airtime Fairness, make sure to check the product specifications before making your purchase, here are the known models of touters that support Airtime Fairness.

1. ASUS RT-AC3200
2. TP-Link Archer C9
3. NETGEAR Nighthawk R7000
4. Linksys WRT3200ACM
5. D-Link DIR-890L
6. Synology RT2600ac

How does it work?

The Airtime Fairness technology is software that runs on your home router and ensures that each connected device receives the same amount of Internet access in real-time.

It uses an algorithm to distribute the wireless connection and bandwidth fairly and every single device connected to the router is therefore expected to have an equal share of the internet speed.

It doesn’t matter if a device is a phone, a desktop, or a laptop, the Airtime Fairness technology will take care of all devices and apply the same settings to each one.

As such, the overall performance of your network will be improved, giving even more consistent performance across all devices on the network.

When to enable Airtime Fairness?

The truth is you don’t need the Airtime Fairness setting all the time. The only time you need to enable it is when you have multiple devices simultaneously using the internet and demand is higher.

This means that if everyone at home is using their internet connection at the same time and they are streaming, gaming, or using VoIP, then it’s a good idea to turn on Airtime Fairness.

However, even if all your family members are not simultaneously using the internet, there can also be issues where some of your devices may have more bandwidth than others.

For example, some devices may be closer to the router than others and this tends to mean that they get more bandwidth. Now, if you enable Airtime Fairness, it will ensure that everyone gets an equal share of the internet speed regardless of what device they are using.

Places that tend to experience multiple Wifi connections can benefit a great deal from this setting. We’re talking about public Wifi spots, hotels, workspaces, cafes, etc. Any place you go to with multiple and simultaneous Wifi connections will benefit greatly from this setting. There will be no devices slowing down the network for others.

In most cases, Airtime Fairness is disabled on the router. Therefore, you need to take the initiative to enable it. The steps for enabling it will depend on the router model you have. The most popular routers that have this feature include Dlink, TP-Link, Netgear, and Asus.

Just access the router settings and toggle Airtime Fairness to On. If you are unsure about how to enable the Airtime Fairness setting on your router, please contact your router manufacturer for more information.

When to disable Airtime Fairness?

While Airtime Fairness is a great feature, it can also create some issues if you have a high bandwidth usage. For example, if your family has lots of video streaming devices in the home, then it can seriously impact the bandwidth available to such devices.

Keep in mind, some internet devices don’t support this feature and may not work at all when you enable it. Gaming consoles and game stations, for example, may not work well with Airtime Fairness enabled.

These are devices that require a lot of bandwidth and as such, wouldn’t work well with a slower signal. They’re likely to drop the connection completely.

Airtime Fairness isn’t needed when you have powerful devices or applications that you wish to prioritize over other internet devices.

For example, if you have an indoor or outdoor security camera, a gaming console, or maybe an application that requires a lot of bandwidth, then you may want to consider disabling Airtime Fairness. This will allow the router to prioritize such devices thereby ensuring they get more of the overall bandwidth.

Final Thoughts

Enabling Airtime Fairness can be a good option if you want to ensure that your family members are all enjoying the same online experience. It’s also a great option if you are on a network with multiple simultaneous connections. With Airtime Fairness, both the guests and the home users can enjoy a better internet experience.

However, you also need to be careful as some devices may not work well when Airtime Fairness is enabled. This means that you might have to disable it in some cases.