[LARTC] Definitive way to aggregate bandwidth using multiple links

[LARTC] Definitive way to aggregate bandwidth using multiple links

[Dâniel Fraga]

	I always used multiple links from different ISPs and in my
oppinion the best way to really aggregate bandwidth is using some kind
of proxy which the client connects to and distribute multiple
connections to the links.

	Years ago, a friend of mine wrote Netsplitter:

http://www.hostname.org/netsplitter/

	but it's outdated, abandoned (last version from 2002). And it
was mainly written for FreeBSD but could run on Linux too.

	Another project which supposed to aggregate bandwidth was
eqlplus, which is outdated too:

http://www.technetra.com/solutions/eqlplus/

	Main Netsplitter advantages over eqlplus:

1) it doesn't require kernel patches, it runs completely in user space
2) it isn't restricted to serial lines (slip, uncompressed ppp).
Finally we can use our ethernet links :)
3) simpler configuration

	Anyway, I'd like to ask if somebody knows about some other
project similar to these. With netsplitter everything was so simple, I
redirect the connections to the netsplitter daemon, which acts like a
proxy, and opened multiple connections to a ftp/http/whatever server
and it distributed the connections over the links... very nice. This
way we don't have to mess with the kernel. The method is elegant and
transparent.

	Thanks!

-- 
Linux 2.6.22: Holy Dancing Manatees, Batman!
http://www.lastfm.pt/user/danielfraga
http://u-br.net
Alphaville - "Big in Japan" (First Harvest 1984-92)

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Re: [LARTC] Definitive way to aggregate bandwidth using multiple links

[Dâniel Fraga]

On Wed, 25 Jul 2007 23:36:54 -0600
"Jan Mulders" <lastchancehotel@gmail.com> wrote:

> >From the looks of these two programs, they seem to 'round robin'
> >outgoing
> TCP requests over multiple links - I believe most iptables frontends
> (I know Shorewall does out of the box) allow you to round-robin
> outgoing connections over multiple different source IP addresses when
> masquerading using NAT, which is usually functionally identical to
> what these two do, if I am not mistaken?

	I'm afraid yes Jan, because it isn't enough to round-robin
connections, but to make sure that if a single client opens, for
example, 5 connections, it will be split thru the available links,
agregating bandwidth. I think that it's impossible to do this just with
iptables. Even multipath (using the above example) would just put all
the 5 connections on a single link :(.

> I'm also interested to hear of related projects: I use OpenVPN to
> provide a tunneling VPN to my users, and have lots of problems with
> insufficient throughput over TCP, even when more bandwidth is
> available. My main goal is to try and split TCP streams into multiple
> streams, then reassemble them at the other end - this seems to be
> something neither of the above are intended to do.

	Mayeb some kind of bonding, but the problem is that the 2
points of your VPN aren't directly connected, otherwise you could use
Bonding or TEQL. There's EQL for serial links, but you'd have to
install it on both ends...

-- 
Linux 2.6.22: Holy Dancing Manatees, Batman!
http://www.lastfm.pt/user/danielfraga
http://u-br.net
Cranberries - "I Will Always" (Everybody Else Is Doing It, So Why Can't
We? - 1993)

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Re: [LARTC] Definitive way to aggregate bandwidth using multiple links

[Grant Taylor]

On 07/26/07 00:55, Dâniel Fraga wrote:
> Mayeb some kind of bonding, but the problem is that the 2 points of 
> your VPN aren't directly connected, otherwise you could use Bonding 
> or TEQL. There's EQL for serial links, but you'd have to install it 
> on both ends...

*nod*

The only thing that comes to mind that would facilitate true aggregation 
of multiple links would be to have a server on very high bandwidth that 
you could create multiple tunnels (IPIP / IPSec / GRE) to and have it 
aggregate the multiple tunnels together and then use the aggregated 
tunnel as your larger pipe to the world and do all your NATing at that 
end so the world would see you from one largish connection.

At least in theory this is sound with Multi-Link PPP.  However I do not 
know of any one that has done this.  I suppose this would be a decent 
service if someone could make it turn key.  Would any one care to 
jointly work on something like this?  I could locate a box on an OC-3 
for testing purpose, but not long term production, at least not with out 
paying hundreds per month.

I suppose such a service should support IPSec, IP in IP, GRE, L2TP, PPTP 
tunnels.  What else?  Would it be better to aggregate the tunnels in to 
one large logical router or rather multiple smaller UML / VMWare routers 
per client so the client could have control over the remote end?  What 
about IP address space?  Thoughts / Opinions?



Grant. . . .
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