Hello,
I am an intermediate network engineer with a respectable knowledge of networking.
I currently have a client where we are attempting to bond/aggregate 4 x BT FTTC 80MB/20MB connections into one connection for the purpose of a small student halls residence (~60 students max, currently occupied with 10 so we have time to trial-and-error - currently only linked to 1 connection).
Each room has an Ethernet connection, and there will be a WiFi solution spread across the building. Currently using a couple of Unifi UAP-AC-LR Long Range points (+ Cloud key) on one floor to get the current crop of students going.
Current setup is simply just 1 x HG612 Modem hooked into a simple router on a simple 250 device subnet, with a HP 1920-48G and a HP 1920x24G-PoE serving up the Ethernet points and the AP points.
Eventually we want a setup that is bordering into more an enterprise grade but on a budget. We are looking at deploying Ruckus WiFi points soon (approx £300 per AP) but this isn't the main technological feat I'm trying to accomplish.
Aggregating the 4 x WAN is currently the challenge and I've looked into everything. We want everybody on the same IP subnet (a netmask of 22 for upto 1022 devices) plus I want a separate VLAN for management of devices. I'm currently rattling my brain on how to implement 2 x Draytek 2862 gateways, and using each to aggregate 2 x WAN via Session Based Load Balancing (~160MBit is enough, no one student will require 320MBit for a sustained amount of time), but I can't think how to implement both into the same IP network without a DHCP mixup hence gateway mixup and a complete mess. There are issues with packets all coming from different external IP's causing havoc, there are too many potential issues to arise thinking about it, and apart from having 2 x routers and 2 x switches, I can't think how to join a config like this to have everybody on the same IP network, I can only see the building having a virtual halfway split with half on one IP network and half on another. I also don't know how well the Draytek aggregates WAN bandwidth, I'm yet to even try this Session Based load balance.
A second solution was to use one of TP-Link's 4 x WAN Load Balancers (TL-ER6120) with 4 x Openreach HG612's serving as modems hooked up, but apparently these TP-Link units seem to have an issue aggregating bandwidth for people on low speed connections, so no idea how it'll cope with 4 x 80MBit connections. They're only good for 'load balancing and bonding', not necessarily 'aggregating'.
Another solution was to go with an online SD-WAN service. We got a quote from a company called Evolving Networks, and they have their own proprietary solution (hardware + software) all designed in house, that will aggregate 4 x WAN connections, with the addition of supplying an IP Address as well for the source external traffic (this wouldn't use any of the 4 x IPs provided from any of ther 4 WAN connections, they'd provide a totally new 5th one). They're basically an ISP but a very advanced ISP, they seem a very technical bunch. However their costs are £25 per WAN link per month, for a 3 year term so we're looking at £100 per month to aggregate the lines. This is the best solution as it solves ALL issues above in one fell swoop. We just need 4 x HG612 modems.
However I'm still looking at any other possible options to achieve something close to what we want, because anything else looks like it'll be cheaper than going with Evolving Networks for their 3 year term, or another similar company that can provide what they term an SD-WAN.
All we want to achieve is to somehow aggregate the 4 x WAN connections and have everybody on the same IP network. Everything is pointing to a software layer needing to perform this (as the above company does) so all traffic can look like it's coming from one IP, to avoid issues with specific sites and services that may get confused with different IP origins.
Can anybody recommend an ISP such as Evolving Networks that can perform the same/similar task at a lesser cost?
Any help or advice will be appreciated, thanks!
No comments:
Post a Comment