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Table of Contents
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Executive Summary ...................................................................................................................................... 3 Complementing MPLS Networks ................................................................................................................. 3 Migrating from MPLS Networks with Elfiqs SitePathMTPX ........................................................................ 5 Calculating the ROI of the migration............................................................................................................ 7 Conclusion .................................................................................................................................................... 7
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1. Executive Summary
MPLS networks have been introduced by carriers to give organizations the ability to interconnect multiple sites so they are connected as if they were on the same internal network as the other sites by using local addressing schemes. Since the introduction and adoption of those networks, two common scenarios have been discussed by organizations. The first is how to complement them to maximize uptime in case of carrier failure, and the second is the cost analysis to migrate from MPLS networks to low-cost carrier links while maintaining reliability over the VPN. 2. Complementing MPLS Networks Like any other carrier service, MPLS networks can lose connectivity, and locations relying solely on MPLS connections will lose access to all corporate resources and the Internet. These events prove costly because servers are commonly found only at the datacenter as resources are migrated to virtualized environments. Employees are left without any connectivity, and until the service is re-established, productivity will be seriously impacted. Carrier links, regardless of whether they are public or private, will have the same strategic points of failure, which will impact an organization with only one using one type of connection technology. The Web page www.elfiq.com/pointsoffailure discusses these points, and diversification remains the best method of guaranteeing maximum uptime for the availability of any carrier network. Elfiq Networks Link Balancer appliances can bring a higher level of resilience to these environments by providing the ability to utilize multiple carriers and access technologies concurrently. With these devices, three scenarios are possible: 1- Using multiple MPLS carriers By using multiple MPLS links from multiple MPLS carriers, organizations can offset risk through diversification, and increased throughput is possible by balancing links on a per-session basis. The challenges of this approach include recurring monthly costs and carrier availability.
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White Paper Hospitality White Paper 2- Using a VPN link as a failover A common approach to redundancy, which can be cost-effective, is to combine a MPLS link with a VPN on a low-cost carrier link. This configuration enables both links to be used in failover or load balancing mode: when one of the two accesses fails, the other one handles all traffic until the problem is solved. Using an alternate technology to telco links such as cable modems mitigates risk since multiple carrier network infrastructures are used.
3- Using a large number of public and private links A unique characteristic of Elfiqs product design is the ability to run multiple virtual instances of the Link Balancer on the same hardware unit with a LB-2500E or greater model (www.elfiq.com/vfi). This can overcome the limitation of using one public link with one private in scenario 2, as one virtual balancer can handle multiple MPLS carriers and the second virtual balancer can handle multiple public links; even a third could be used for generic Internet access locally without the need for using the MPLS network(s) for such requests.
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1. Performance enhancement: Since both units exchange link metrics, depending on the selected algorithm, 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 the available 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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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.
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 level of security but none exists.
SitePathMTPX, combined with diversified carrier links from multiple carriers using multiple technologies such as DSL, cable modem, fiber and others, will improve performance and resilience and generate a lower monthly cost structure.
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Router costs and maintenance if applicable and Elfiq Link Balancer units deployed Sum of carrier costs and Elfiq maintenance costs Based on SLAs and past experiences this metric should be lowered if carriers are properly selected Internal organizational metrics
Sum of MPLS and router maintenance costs Based on SLAs and past experiences
Take A + B + C + ( D * E * 3) to determine the cost impact for either network design; it is expected that the Elfiq approach will yield lower annual costs compared to the MPLS deployment.
5. Conclusion
Point 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. Where organizations are not looking to replace their MPLS network but augment it with an extra layer of performance and redundancy, Elfiqs products can make that happen with the use of multiple carriers and carrier diversification to provide the best possible scenario.
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1: Cisco Visual Networking Index: Forecast and Methodology, 20092014, Cisco 2010
August 2011 Copyright 2011, 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 authorization from Elfiq is also prohibited. All rights reserved. All names, trademarks and copyrights are the property of their respective owners. Elfiq registered in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and in Canada
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