Skyriver Communications - Redundancy for Corporate Broadband Whitepaper

Business BroadbandEngineered for Performance

Redundancy for Corporate Broadband

WHITE PAPER


2skyriver.net | 858.812.5280 | [email protected]

IntroductionOver the past twenty years, broadband service providers have been using different mediums to deliver their services. From wireless to wired (fiber, coax, etc.) the pros and cons for each category have been discussed in numerous papers and articles extensively. But there is not enough discussion about how wireless and wiredbroadband delivered together can increase the reliability for the end user.

In this paper, we discuss why aggregating your wired broadband with Skyriver wireless can increase your broadband reliability and uptime.

TelecommunicationNetwork DeploymentTelecommunication networks have evolved dramatically in the past couple of decades. From twisted pair connections like T1s, to higher speed connections like DS3 and fiber optics, customers have many wired choices for their broadband needs. However, all of them have one thing in common, they are laid in trenches.

Most wired operators lay cables or fibers in specific paths under roads across the country. Because of the difficulties in construction and coordination with cities and local authorities, most operators either share the same trenches,or lay their cable in their own trenches which are next to the other trenches. These issues will cause long lead times for wired operators to provide services in areas they do not have presence.

Common Threat for WiredTelecommunication NetworksAs discussed in the previous section, the close proximity of trenches and cable/fiber runs for legacy wired telecommunication operators makes them all vulnerable to the same physical and natural accidents and disasters. A flash floodin one part of the city can wash away part of a street or a highway, or an underground gas pipe explosion can destroy all trenches and cable in the vicinity causing network outages for all operators with cables/fibers in that area.

Reconstruction after events will be lengthy and cause long outages for the affected neighbourhoods even miles away if their feeds go through destroyed trenches. Therefore, the concept of providing redundancy for critical enterprise networks by adding multiple wired providers is not logical. In case of any natural or man made accidents, all operators networks in the area will be affected since all of them usethe same foot print.



Why Fixed Wireless Networks Are DifferentIn a fixed wireless network, a base station can service hundreds of dissimilar subscribers in terms of

bandwidth and services, as shown in Figure 1. Since the medium is wireless, any physical damages

or changes on the ground between the base station and customer premises will not affect the

network. While major destruction destroys trenches and roads, the wireless connections remain solid.

Sectoral Antenna

Figure 1: Point-to-Multipoint Fixed Wireless



Skyriver Maintains UpstreamAnd Access Diversity Like major telecommunication companies,

Skyriver utilizes a “multiple upstream” approach.

In each market, Skyriver’s core network

connects to at least two major upstream

providers, using a distributed BGP (Border

Gateway Protocol) design, to provide complete

redundancy for Internet access. This eliminates

unexpected outages due to failure from one of

the upstream providers.

Businesses Utilize Path Diversity For Full Redundancy

Businesses with mission critical operations

looking for full network redundancy must

combine their wired connection with a fixed

wireless connection to create a truly redundant

network with network diversity and path

diversity. A Skyriver fixed wireless link will

bypass all surrounding street level hazards and

guarantee connectivity to the network should a

major outage occur for wired operators due to a

natural or man made disaster at the street level.

While wired operators go through a lengthy

reconstruction of their network, which can take

days, if not weeks, a business utilizing Skyriver

will be up and running via the Skyriver link.

Carrier diversity is also important because if one

provider goes down for any reason, you are still

connected by another provider, thereby adding

maximum reliability.

Achieving Full Redundancy With Failover and Load Balancing Full redundancy is made possible by using a

router with multiple WAN ports that provides for

failover and traffic load balancing. There are a

number of brands to choose from and many

factors to consider when selecting a router. You

can find units with 2, 3, 4, and up to 30 WAN

interfaces. Each WAN port can connect to an ISP.

When selecting a unit, keep in mind any growth

that your company may have over the next few

years. Note that the throughput is the maximum

inbound and outbound speed the unit can

support simultaneously. For example, a

throughput of 40 Mbps means that the unit

can do 20 Mbps down and 20 Mbps up at the

same time. Get good clarification from the

vendor on this, as well as confirm that the

number of NAT sessions the router supports

simultaneously meets your needs without

slowing down performance.



Failover Multi-WAN routers have the ability to re-route

your inbound and outbound ISP traffic in the

case of a failure. You’ll want to set-up your

failover procedures when you set-up your

multi-WAN router. By setting it up in advance,

you can avoid down time since failover

procedures will automatically re-route traffic

to another healthy connection. Take care that

the router you choose provides for adequate

balancing policies for the type of traffic you

have.

IPs issued by carriers are all carrier specific. So

the loss of a primary circuit will affect IP

schemes including the availability of self-hosted

public facing applications such as email, VPN,

collaboration portals, content servers and VoIP.

True failover or backup capabilities need to

account for DNS (Domain Name System) in

the network design. In the event of ISP

unavailability, the DNS entries for those external

IP addresses will need to redirect traffic to the IP

addresses of the backup ISP. This can be done

manually or through the use of automatic

methods provided as a service by Dynamic DNS

hosting providers or features built into the load

balancing router.

Load Balancing Load balancing is a technology that distributes

network traffic over multiple active WAN links.

Load balancers are typically more expensive

since they do both outbound and inbound load

balancing and they inherently provide failover. It

is important that your unit be able to force (not

balance) specific traffic, as in the case of mail

servers, VPNs or https/443 traffic as these

require non-fluctuating IPs. Additionally, other

institutions, such as banks will do secure traffic

checking and will block an IP address that

changes in the middle of the transaction.

Therefore, you need to be able to force the

device to not load balance for these types of

websites. You want to have granular control over

balancing traffic based on criteria such as

source, destination, port and time of day.

Inbound load balancing is generally performed

via dynamic DNS that can either be built into the

system or provided by an external service or

system. Dynamic DNS built within the device is

generally better from a cost savings and overall

control point of view. Some dual-WAN routers

have a built-in DNS server to provide inbound

load balancing.



ConclusionFor businesses looking for maximum reliability and uptime, aggregating reliable fixed wireless and

wired broadband services is ideal. Redundant broadband services, utilizing a separate and distinct

fixed wireless provider plus a wired provider will ensure true path and carrier diversity, thereby

increasing dependability and reliability for mission critical operations.

© 2012 Skyriver. All rights reserved.

Skyriver Communications - Redundancy for Corporate Broadband Whitepaper

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