Load balancing 2 T3 WAN links possible?

whiteford · ‎03-18-2008

Hi, I'm trying to get some information on how load balancing on 2 WAN links can be achieved before I have a meeting with our WAN provider and bosses.

We are getting 2 lines which are 40mb each with will give us an 80mb line in load balance mode. I was wondering how would this be presented in our Comms room, 2 Cisco routers or 2 routers (2 x 40mb) into one router (to do the load balancing) then this router into our LAN or DMZ? I thought it might use HSRP but this is fault tolerance not LB.

Thanks for your ideas and help.

Joseph W. Doherty · ‎03-18-2008

There are different techniques for load balancing; most dependent on the physical topology, for instance whether you'll have one router or two on each end of the dual links. Here too, you're likely to be further dependent on what your WAN provider is willing to support. Have then inform you what they will support. (NB: an important question is whether you're trying to obtain a virtual pipe of 80 Mbps, or whether load balancing across dual 40 Mbps is satisfactory. Also with the latter, how traffic will be balanced.)

Rick Morris · ‎03-20-2008

You really need to tell us what you want to acheive.

At the basic premise you can take both connections into one router.

How are the lines coming in:

2 different providers?

Same provider same POP?

Same provider different POP?

Do you own your own IP space and/or ASN?

This will help determine how you set it up, to some degree.

Really it all depends on what you want to acheive.