AWS Direct Connect now supports VIF Rate Limiters to help prevent network congestion

Amazon Web Services has introduced Virtual Interface (VIF) Rate Limiters for AWS Direct Connect dedicated connections, a new feature designed to prevent network congestion caused by unexpected traffic spikes. The rate limiting capability allows customers to set maximum bandwidth allocations for up to 10 VIFs on a single dedicated connection, with capacity options ranging from 50 Mbps to 1.6 Tbps when using link aggregation groups. When traffic on a rate-limited VIF exceeds its configured capacity, excess packets are automatically dropped to protect bandwidth availability for other VIFs sharing the same connection. The new feature applies rate limiting to both ingress and egress traffic on the AWS network and includes enhanced monitoring capabilities through Amazon CloudWatch. Customers can track traffic utilization as a percentage of configured VIF capacity and monitor dropped packet counts, enabling them to set custom alarms based on their specific thresholds. The VIF Rate Limiters are now available across all AWS Regions in commercial and China partitions where Direct Connect dedicated connections are supported, and can be configured through the AWS Direct Connect console, API, or SDK.