diff --git a/controllers/nginx/configuration.md b/controllers/nginx/configuration.md
index 90c1fbc534..dc36293afd 100644
--- a/controllers/nginx/configuration.md
+++ b/controllers/nginx/configuration.md
@@ -207,6 +207,8 @@ The annotations `ingress.kubernetes.io/limit-connections`, `ingress.kubernetes.i
 
 `ingress.kubernetes.io/limit-rpm`: number of connections that may be accepted from a given IP each minute.
 
+You can specify the client IP source ranges to be excluded from rate-limiting through the `ingress.kubernetes.io/limit-whitelist` annotation. The value is a comma separated list of CIDRs.
+
 If you specify multiple annotations in a single Ingress rule, `limit-rpm`, and then `limit-rps` takes precedence.
 
 The annotation `ingress.kubernetes.io/limit-rate`, `ingress.kubernetes.io/limit-rate-after` define a limit the rate of response transmission to a client. The rate is specified in bytes per second. The zero value disables rate limiting. The limit is set per a request, and so if a client simultaneously opens two connections, the overall rate will be twice as much as the specified limit.
@@ -221,7 +223,7 @@ To configure this setting globally for all Ingress rules, the `limit-rate-after`
 
 The annotation `ingress.kubernetes.io/ssl-passthrough` allows to configure TLS termination in the pod and not in NGINX.
 
-**Important:** 
+**Important:**
 - Using the annotation `ingress.kubernetes.io/ssl-passthrough` invalidates all the other available annotations. This is because SSL Passthrough works in L4 (TCP).
 - The use of this annotation requires the flag `--enable-ssl-passthrough` (By default it is disabled)
 
diff --git a/controllers/nginx/pkg/template/template.go b/controllers/nginx/pkg/template/template.go
index b7d3dc860b..0b8c42fbad 100644
--- a/controllers/nginx/pkg/template/template.go
+++ b/controllers/nginx/pkg/template/template.go
@@ -132,6 +132,7 @@ var (
 		"buildAuthLocation":        buildAuthLocation,
 		"buildAuthResponseHeaders": buildAuthResponseHeaders,
 		"buildProxyPass":           buildProxyPass,
+		"buildWhitelistVariable":   buildWhitelistVariable,
 		"buildRateLimitZones":      buildRateLimitZones,
 		"buildRateLimit":           buildRateLimit,
 		"buildResolvers":           buildResolvers,
@@ -335,10 +336,23 @@ func buildProxyPass(host string, b interface{}, loc interface{}) string {
 	return defProxyPass
 }
 
+var (
+	whitelistVarMap = map[string]string{}
+)
+
+func buildWhitelistVariable(s string) string {
+	if _, ok := whitelistVarMap[s]; !ok {
+		str := base64.URLEncoding.EncodeToString([]byte(s))
+		whitelistVarMap[s] = strings.Replace(str, "=", "", -1)
+	}
+
+	return whitelistVarMap[s]
+}
+
 // buildRateLimitZones produces an array of limit_conn_zone in order to allow
 // rate limiting of request. Each Ingress rule could have up to two zones, one
 // for connection limit by IP address and other for limiting request per second
-func buildRateLimitZones(variable string, input interface{}) []string {
+func buildRateLimitZones(input interface{}) []string {
 	zones := sets.String{}
 
 	servers, ok := input.([]*ingress.Server)
@@ -349,9 +363,11 @@ func buildRateLimitZones(variable string, input interface{}) []string {
 	for _, server := range servers {
 		for _, loc := range server.Locations {
 
+			whitelistVar := buildWhitelistVariable(loc.RateLimit.Name)
+
 			if loc.RateLimit.Connections.Limit > 0 {
-				zone := fmt.Sprintf("limit_conn_zone %v zone=%v:%vm;",
-					variable,
+				zone := fmt.Sprintf("limit_conn_zone $%s_limit zone=%v:%vm;",
+					whitelistVar,
 					loc.RateLimit.Connections.Name,
 					loc.RateLimit.Connections.SharedSize)
 				if !zones.Has(zone) {
@@ -360,8 +376,8 @@ func buildRateLimitZones(variable string, input interface{}) []string {
 			}
 
 			if loc.RateLimit.RPM.Limit > 0 {
-				zone := fmt.Sprintf("limit_req_zone %v zone=%v:%vm rate=%vr/m;",
-					variable,
+				zone := fmt.Sprintf("limit_req_zone $%s_limit zone=%v:%vm rate=%vr/m;",
+					whitelistVar,
 					loc.RateLimit.RPM.Name,
 					loc.RateLimit.RPM.SharedSize,
 					loc.RateLimit.RPM.Limit)
@@ -371,8 +387,8 @@ func buildRateLimitZones(variable string, input interface{}) []string {
 			}
 
 			if loc.RateLimit.RPS.Limit > 0 {
-				zone := fmt.Sprintf("limit_req_zone %v zone=%v:%vm rate=%vr/s;",
-					variable,
+				zone := fmt.Sprintf("limit_req_zone $%s_limit zone=%v:%vm rate=%vr/s;",
+					whitelistVar,
 					loc.RateLimit.RPS.Name,
 					loc.RateLimit.RPS.SharedSize,
 					loc.RateLimit.RPS.Limit)
diff --git a/controllers/nginx/rootfs/etc/nginx/template/nginx.tmpl b/controllers/nginx/rootfs/etc/nginx/template/nginx.tmpl
index 058aaa83d6..9c42638570 100644
--- a/controllers/nginx/rootfs/etc/nginx/template/nginx.tmpl
+++ b/controllers/nginx/rootfs/etc/nginx/template/nginx.tmpl
@@ -288,12 +288,24 @@ http {
     }
     {{ end }}
     {{ end }}
+    {{ if ne $location.RateLimit.Name "" }}
+    geo ${{ buildWhitelistVariable $location.RateLimit.Name }}_whitelist {
+        default 0;
+        {{ range $ip := $location.RateLimit.Whitelist }}
+        {{ $ip }} 1;{{ end }}
+    }
+
+    map ${{ buildWhitelistVariable $location.RateLimit.Name }}_whitelist ${{ buildWhitelistVariable $location.RateLimit.Name }}_limit {
+        0 {{ $cfg.LimitConnZoneVariable }};
+        1 "";
+    }
+    {{ end }}
     {{ end }}
     {{ end }}
 
     {{/* build all the required rate limit zones. Each annotation requires a dedicated zone */}}
     {{/* 1MB -> 16 thousand 64-byte states or about 8 thousand 128-byte states */}}
-    {{ range $zone := (buildRateLimitZones $cfg.LimitConnZoneVariable $servers) }}
+    {{ range $zone := (buildRateLimitZones $servers) }}
     {{ $zone }}
     {{ end }}
 
diff --git a/core/pkg/ingress/annotations/ratelimit/main.go b/core/pkg/ingress/annotations/ratelimit/main.go
index acf6a32b0c..2d65753aa3 100644
--- a/core/pkg/ingress/annotations/ratelimit/main.go
+++ b/core/pkg/ingress/annotations/ratelimit/main.go
@@ -18,11 +18,14 @@ package ratelimit
 
 import (
 	"fmt"
+	"sort"
+	"strings"
 
 	extensions "k8s.io/api/extensions/v1beta1"
 
 	"k8s.io/ingress/core/pkg/ingress/annotations/parser"
 	"k8s.io/ingress/core/pkg/ingress/resolver"
+	"k8s.io/ingress/core/pkg/net"
 )
 
 const (
@@ -31,6 +34,7 @@ const (
 	limitRPM       = "ingress.kubernetes.io/limit-rpm"
 	limitRATE      = "ingress.kubernetes.io/limit-rate"
 	limitRATEAFTER = "ingress.kubernetes.io/limit-rate-after"
+	limitWhitelist = "ingress.kubernetes.io/limit-whitelist"
 
 	// allow 5 times the specified limit as burst
 	defBurst = 5
@@ -55,6 +59,10 @@ type RateLimit struct {
 	LimitRate int `json:"limit-rate"`
 
 	LimitRateAfter int `json:"limit-rate-after"`
+
+	Name string `json:"name"`
+
+	Whitelist []string `json:"whitelist"`
 }
 
 // Equal tests for equality between two RateLimit types
@@ -80,6 +88,22 @@ func (rt1 *RateLimit) Equal(rt2 *RateLimit) bool {
 	if rt1.LimitRateAfter != rt2.LimitRateAfter {
 		return false
 	}
+	if rt1.Name != rt2.Name {
+		return false
+	}
+
+	for _, r1l := range rt1.Whitelist {
+		found := false
+		for _, rl2 := range rt2.Whitelist {
+			if r1l == rl2 {
+				found = true
+				break
+			}
+		}
+		if !found {
+			return false
+		}
+	}
 
 	return true
 }
@@ -144,6 +168,13 @@ func (a ratelimit) Parse(ing *extensions.Ingress) (interface{}, error) {
 	rps, _ := parser.GetIntAnnotation(limitRPS, ing)
 	conn, _ := parser.GetIntAnnotation(limitIP, ing)
 
+	val, _ := parser.GetStringAnnotation(limitWhitelist, ing)
+
+	cidrs, err := parseCIDRs(val)
+	if err != nil {
+		return nil, err
+	}
+
 	if rpm == 0 && rps == 0 && conn == 0 {
 		return &RateLimit{
 			Connections:    Zone{},
@@ -177,5 +208,33 @@ func (a ratelimit) Parse(ing *extensions.Ingress) (interface{}, error) {
 		},
 		LimitRate:      lr,
 		LimitRateAfter: lra,
+		Name:           zoneName,
+		Whitelist:      cidrs,
 	}, nil
 }
+
+func parseCIDRs(s string) ([]string, error) {
+	if s == "" {
+		return []string{}, nil
+	}
+
+	values := strings.Split(s, ",")
+
+	ipnets, ips, err := net.ParseIPNets(values...)
+	if err != nil {
+		return nil, err
+	}
+
+	cidrs := []string{}
+	for k := range ipnets {
+		cidrs = append(cidrs, k)
+	}
+
+	for k := range ips {
+		cidrs = append(cidrs, k)
+	}
+
+	sort.Strings(cidrs)
+
+	return cidrs, nil
+}