Load Balancing Routers

tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1923078024539080324.post-67084428917628767552008-04-15T18:52:00.005+01:002008-04-17T08:38:01.365+01:00Load Balancing RoutersOne of the potential drawbacks of VoIP is that your calls come in over your internet (generally broadband or cable) connection and that has a limited capacity. A busy office might only be able to handle 3 or 4 phone calls at once over their standard broadband connection. So, what happens when you want to have more people making calls? One option is to set new people up in new locations, and this way the VoIP service is pretty much infinitely expandable. i.e. if every employee works from home over their home broadband connection then there is no sharing of the connection with the other employees. In many companies this is not an option (or maybe not the whole answer). Many companies thrive on having teams working in the same offices, learning and being motivated by working together. So, what is your next option? First up is checking the speed and quality of your existing connection. ISPs like Be Broadband can offer up to 24Mb download speeds (and as importantly for VoIP pretty high upload speeds too) where they have their unbundled equipment in your local exchange. Even in normal BT Exchanges you can choose an ISP like Zen Internet to get you better quality connections. These improvements could well take you up to perhaps even 20 calls being made over the connection (that is not a promise!). Some people can then even add an extra broadband line and dedicate that to just VoIP calls while the old line continues to be used for just internet surfing. This does require a bit more knowledge about how to manage your network. The more broadband lines then the more complicated this can get. A drawback to this is that generally the upload speeds available are not nearly as high as the download speed you get, I've often seen it at around a 5th of the received download speed (i.e. 8Mb ADSL download, may be getting just over 1Mb upload speed) and a VoIP call uses equal amounts of upload and download bandwidth). The next answer could well be an SDSL connection. This is a Synchronous connection giving you equal upload and download speeds (and those people I know with SDSL connections love them) but this can still be a pretty major step up in monthly costs (a 2Mbps SDSL from Zen Internet currently costs £299/month). I believe that for small businesses the answer at this point lies with Load Balancing Routers. You can take additional normal broadband connections (could be ADSL, Cable, even Leased Line) and aggregate them in one router. This then lets you share the aggregated upload and download speeds easily over your network. Generally these load balanced routers can accept 2 to 4 (WAN) connections. The beauty about this is you get the full benefit of all the upload bandwidth from all of the connections. A second benefit is that if one ISP experiences some downtime, you won't be shutdown, you'll only be slowed down as the Router automatically keeps you connected on the other connections. Work continues, even if not as effectively or fast as normal until the broken connection is repaired. I believe this gives a small business the best levels of availability, scalability, and performance. What I don't know yet is which Load Balancing Routers are the best, most cost effective, easiest to setup. Based on my research I've listed below Load Balancing Routers from the key suppliers (along with a very quick bit of research as to an online price for each) and would be very interested in anyones experiences and comments on any of these: 1) Draytek Vigor 3300v MultiService Security VoIP Load Balancer w/2 Module Slots (£289.98 ex VAT) Load-balanced WAN Ports: Connect up to four Internet feeds for increased Internet bandwidth, fault-tolerance and redunancy. In basic load-balancing mode, the Draytek Vigor 3300V will distribute WAN traffic requests evenly. This means that if you have two 512Kb/s feeds, two LAN users can download at 512Kb/s simultaneously. Alternatively you can select traffic preferences for the load balancing, selecting specific Internet feeds for traffic types of traffic (e.g. VoIP, VPN), by source/destination IP address or TCP/UDP Port ranges. 2) Draytek Vigor 2930 VPN Dual-WAN Broadband Router (£150.08 ex VAT) The two dedicated ethernet WAN ports can provide load balancing, WAN failover or bandwidth aggregation (increasing total bandwidth onto the Internet). High Speed total WAN througput of up to 70Mb/s is available, and IPSec VPN throughput of up to 40Mb/s. Extensive QoS support and comprehensive Web Content filtering features help you make the most efficient use of your bandwidth. 3) Billion BiGuard 50G Wireless-G Security Dual WAN VPN Load Balancer (£153.59 ex VAT) Enjoy effective, always-on Internet sharing for all the PCs in your office thanks to load-balancing delivered by two integrated broadband WAN ports to ensure optimal bandwidth sharing, and provide network redundancy in case one of the Internet services fails. The BiGuard 50G offers flexible WAN connectivity via Cable, XDSL, or FTTX for video conferencing, data transmission, VoIP and bandwidth-consuming applications. Load balancing provides the ability to distribute the outgoing traffic across the two connections, and meet growing business needs requiring more bandwidth and network scalability so you can offer users Internet-business applications. The Auto fail-over feature can be configured for a second connection to assure redundant connectivity when the primary line fails. 4) Linksys RV042 4-Port Load Balancer w/VPN Endpoint (£93.42 ex VAT) The unique dual Internet ports on the 10/100 4-Port VPN Router let you connect a second Internet line as a backup to insure that you're never disconnected. Or, use both Internet ports at the same time, and let the router balance your office's requirements between them for maximum bandwidth efficiency. 5) NETGEAR FVS124G ProSafe Dual WAN Gigabit Firewall Router (£84.06 ex VAT) Dual WAN ports for maximum Internet connectivity. You can use both ports at the same time, and let the router balance your office’s requirements between them for maximum bandwidth efficiency. 6) D-Link DI-LB604 > 4-Port Load Balancing Router (£69.00 ex VAT) One of the main differentiators the DI-LB604 has from most routers is its dual WAN ports. With the ability to connect up to two Internet connections, the total available bandwidth doubles in capacity and therefore provides a tremendous increase in network efficiency and user productivity. Dual WAN ports also provide a fast-acting failover response mechanism; if one Internet connection goes down, the other automatically takes control to ensure continuous network uptime. 7) Edimax BR-6641 (£229.03 ex VAT) Auto Load Balancing (Inbound/Outbound). With real-time load sharing and load balancing, BR-6641 intelligent routing engine directs each session or connection to the best available link. BR-6641 can aggregate multiple connections and increases bandwidth by trunking various types of connection (Leased-line, xDSL, and Cable Modem) to form a single virtual WAN trunk. BR-6641 Provides 4 WAN ports for internet connection . The function provides you not only increase bandwidth but also backup internet connection each other. Whenever a link fails or is unstable, traffic is automatically re-routed to other healthy and available links to ensure uninterrupted connectivity. After the faulty link resumes functioning, on-line traffic is redistributed across all available connections to optimize the network performance. 8) ZyXEL ZyWALL 35 UTM Appliance (£349.99 ex VAT) Dual WAN ports for WAN backup and Load Balancing.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/1923078024539080324-6708442891762876755?l=voipadvantageuk.blogspot.com'/></div>Pete Jenkinsnoreply@blogger.com2