Elfiq White Paper - SitePathMTPX multiplexing for VPNs

8/8/2019 Elfiq White Paper - SitePathMTPX multiplexing for VPNs

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Technology White Paper

SitePathMTPX:

Point to Point Resilience

for Applications over

Internet/WANConnections

Build Smarter Networks


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SitePathMPTX White Paper

2009 Elfiq Networks. All rights reserved www.elfiq.com2

Table of Contents

1. Executive Summary .................................................................................................................................. 3

2. Overview of the Problem ......................................................................................................................... 3

3. SitePathMTPX Operating Principles ...................................................................................................... 4

4. SitePathMTPX Balancing Algorithms .................................................................................................... 6

5. SitePath as its Own Failover Mesh Networks ................................................................................... 7

6. Customer Scenario: Victrix ...................................................................................................................... 8

7. Return on Investment versus Downtime-related Losses .................................................................... 8

8. Conclusion ................................................................................................................................................. 9


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1. Executive SummaryPoint to point applications have been a part of the information technology space for a very long time,

and they have evolved into essential business services where key activities depend on them on a

daily basis. Commonly found point to point applications in business organizations include branch

office virtual private network tunnels, voice over IP deployments, file transfer systems and business

continuity/disaster recovery projects.

2. Overview of the ProblemInternet access is the commonly preferred communication vector employed by organizations for its

affordability and availability. As discussed in the Business Continuity: Proactive Telecom Strategies

for Decision Makers White Paper published byElfiq Networks, public ISP links are expected to suffer

failure on a regular basis, and contingency planning is key to continual and normal operations.

When point to point applications are operating on these links and they suffer either significant

congestion or downtime, key applications such as accessing an organizations ERP system, email,

internal Web services and many more are unavailable for the duration of the issue. Depending onthe duration, the impact can prove to be mild for a few minutes but in many cases severe, where

connection losses measured in days can result in significant financial losses. In such cases, orders

cannot be processed easily, employee productivity is taxed with unplanned events and customer

relationships may suffer as a result of downtime.

The reason for such issues is that a single ISP link is utilized to serve the bandwidth for point to pointapplications, and in this context the potential points of failure are summed because they have to be

accounted for at each end point. So when an ISP link fails at one end, both ends stop

communicating, and should one end point suffer from saturation, the other end suffers the same

result.

In the context of many to one environments, where multiple sites connect to a central site, the

central site becomes the strategic point of failure, where, should it fail or suffer bandwidth

degradation, all the satellite sites connected to it will suffer a loss of service at the same time for the

same period, causing significant productivity degradation and potential financial losses.
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To simplify the following discussion from this point on, the context of VPNsthrough firewalls will be used. Please note that any point to point application such

as file transfer or VoIP will benefit equally from SitePathMTPX. Also, the context

will involve two end points and two routers to simplify the discussion, but

SitePathMTPX can handle multiple sites depending on the model.

3. SitePathMTPX Operating Principles

SitePathMTPX from Elfiq Networks is an innovative approach to resolving both performance and

downtime issues experienced by organizations for point to point applications. At its core, Elfiqs

Layer-2 implementation provides a seamless , transparent installation of the Elfiq Link Balancers in

a customer environment without reconfiguring existing network devices residing on the carrier side

of the network (WAN), namely firewalls, VPN gateways and routers.

From the point of view of the firewall, there is no change

whatsoever so it transacts with the Elfiq Link Balancer as if it

was the original router, but the Elfiq handles the original

router as well as the additional ones. This original link

configuration concept is known as the primary link in the

Elfiq environment and is a key concept in the products

design.

Once both sites have the Elfiq unit in place, without any

modifications the VPN tunnel between the firewalls can

resume as it was before through each sites primary link.

Each connection between each ISP connected to each Elfiq Link Balancer is called a SitePath, and a

SitePath Group is the sum of SitePaths connected to another site.


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Elfiq Link Balancers can now be used to their full potential to strengthen the VPN tunnel by

exchanging SitePath information about real-time traffic information handled though each router in

place on both ends. Once this exchange is configured and set into action, multiple routers can be

used to transmit data from one end to another, providing two key benefits:

1. Performance enhancement: since both units exchange link metrics, based on the selectedalgorithm, the fastest available link can be selected to improve overall performance,

eliminating the saturation bottleneck often experienced in VPNs. This performance

improvement operates in both directions of the SitePathMTPX relationship.

2. Resilience: should an ISP link fail, the local Elfiq unit will re-adjust the traffic flow to theavailable link(s) to ensure continuity and communicate to the other unit the change in

available links, preventing a cancellation of the VPN session between the two sites and

guaranteeing normal continuous operations even with an unavailable link. When the

defective link returns to normal, it gets re-added to the list of links selected for

SitePathMTPX.


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Unlike other technologies, this is transparent for any type of point to point traffic, where

no VPN tunnel is created between each router, thus simplifying network design,

consuming fewer resources and being completely agnostic. Also, SitePathMTPX tunnels

can be encrypted in AES128 should the point to point application require a higher levelof security but none exists.

In the SitePathMTPX feature, the concept of a SitePath is one of the colored lines in the diagrams

above, while a SitePath Group is all the SitePaths connected to another site. A single unit can have

more than one SitePath Group connecting to multiple remote sites.

Another function of SitePathMTPX is the ability to provide quality of service (QoS) for its traffic, to

ensure enough bandwidth is available to provide the required service and also to prevent

overutilization of the bandwidth by SitePathMTPX in certain contexts to ensure optimal bandwidth

distribution.

4. SitePathMTPX Balancing AlgorithmsOne of the key advantages and a unique feature of SitePathMTPX is the ability to select one of four

algorithms designed for this particular functionality:

1- Weight First Algorithm (WFA): this algorithm will use a SitePath based on its weight andavailable bandwidth.

2- Best SitePath First (BSFA): this algorithm selects the most appropriate SitePath based onstatistics and cumulative metrics to select the path with the most available bandwidth.

3- Round Trip Time First Algorithm (RTFA): this algorithm dynamically selects the SitePath basedon round trip times (RTT) of packets.


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4- Multiplexing (MTPX): this algorithm enables bandwidth virtualization by aggregating multiplepaths into one virtual path for increased throughput. It requires links of similar specifications

and performance for optimal use.

5. SitePath as its Own Failover Mesh NetworksOn any Elfiq Link Balancer, SitePathMTPX enables at least two SitePath Groups to connect to

multiple sites. Should more sites, such as business continuity sites, be interconnected in a

centralized environment, SitePathMTPX can be used to mesh point to point applications in mission-

critical environments.


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6. Customer Scenario: VictrixVictrix is an IT solution provider that decided to invest in deploying multiple ISPs across their sites to

improve performance and reliability. Having deployed more expensive 10Mbps fiber circuits at their

primary sites, they required more throughput and redundancy through carrier technology

combinations. With SitePathMTPX, the office to office connectivity issues of saturation and

occasional ISP link downtime were eliminated, and DSL/cable modems were used to enhance the

redundancy of the solution, so if one carrier network is unavailable another should be ready to take

over the tasks until service is restored.

A full case study is available atwww.elfiq.com.

7. Return on Investment versus Downtime-related LossesSince every organization is different, this metric can be either simple or complex to measure. Key

items commonly used to determine the return on investment of a bandwidth improvement should

include:

number of outages in the last year with duration

number of significantly degraded periods in the last year

financial losses/lost sales due to downtime

average productivity losses per employee per outagemetric for existing links before and after implementation

cost of each available ISP link.

Elfiq provides a free ROI calculation tool atwww.elfiq.com, so organizations can start building

estimates based on these calculations.
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8. ConclusionPoint to point applications such as VPNs and VoIP have become not only commonplace but also

critical to ensure normal business operations. To alleviate the two core issues of downtime and

saturation in such deployments, Elfiqs SitePathMTPX feature provides a creative, robust, simple and

non-intrusive answer to bringing performance and resilience to any organization in a very cost-

effective manner.

Produced by Elfiq Networks

Elfiq Networks is a technology leader and innovator in the field of WAN link management andbalancing. With successful installations in over 50 countries, Elfiqs Link Balancer products help

organizations of any type and size perform more competitively every day with the ability to use

multiple Internet and private links easily and securely.

For more information on Elfiq Networks products and technologies, please contact:

Elfiq Networks

1155 University, #712

Montreal, Quebec, H3B 3A7

Canada

Telephone: 888-GO-ELFIQ/514-667-0611

Internet: www.elfiq.com

Email: [email protected]

May 2009

Copyright 2009, Elfiq Networks (Elfiq Inc.). The contents of this document are protected by copyright. Any modification of this document, in any shape or

form, is prohibited. Any redistribution, publication or derivation of the contents of this document without written authoriza tion from Elfiq is also prohibited.

All rights reserved.

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Elfiq White Paper - SitePathMTPX multiplexing for VPNs