Technical advantages and applications: Multi-Wan Port Routers

The earliest Broadband Router solves the IP sharing problem, that is, to allow multiple terminals in the internal network to share a broadband egress. The core technical application is the simple NAT-network address translation function. Therefore, the old-fashioned Broadband Router is also called an IP sharing device ".
As your network application requirements increase, NAT alone is not enough. In particular, users have urgent requirements on network security and other functions to ensure the safe and smooth operation of the network. The design of broadband routers is increasingly complicated, including FIREWALL, DMZ, and virtual servers, broadband routers have embarked on a multi-functional road, and various SOHO router products have emerged.
Now, the other development trend is becoming more and more obvious. Broadband routers are gradually coming out of SOHO and home applications, and are selected by the majority of enterprises as networking devices for medium-scale networks, in this environment, enterprise users impose more complex functional requirements on Broadband routers, such as faster speed, more secure, manageable, and diversified application modes. As a result, broadband routers are showing a diverse development trend. A wide variety of products with different performance constitute the rapidly growing SMB Broadband Router market.
Among them, the Broadband Router with multiple WAN ports is such a special SMB Product Series. It has changed the "one-to-many" broadband access method into a "many-to-many" method, fully satisfying the desire of enterprise users to own more bandwidth at no cost. This type of router allows users to share 2-4 broadband external lines in a LAN, without dividing the internal network into several independent parts based on the number of WAN ports. In fact, its working mechanism is to distribute all kinds of request data in the LAN to different broadband outlets based on the preset load balancing policy, the requested data is then returned from the egress, so as to achieve intelligent dynamic information delivery. Since Session requests in Lan are distributed and continuously distributed, after allocation, it seems to be like expanding the egress bandwidth of the entire LAN, which doubles the bandwidth.
Multi-Wan port broadband routers are technically complex and require high hardware processing capabilities. The processing of Multi-WAN ports is not a standard network protocol, and there are no standards to follow. It is just an implementation strategy. Therefore, due to different technical capabilities and on-site debugging environments, the similar products of different manufacturers vary greatly. To achieve high-speed data packet distribution and collection, complex algorithms must be constantly optimized to ensure accuracy, efficiency, and adaptability. Therefore, the design engineer's embedded software requires a high level of skill.
At the same time, the multi-Wan port router must use a high-speed CPU and a large-capacity storage device, otherwise it is not competent for parsing each IP packet. The low-speed CPU processing capability is insufficient, which may cause the internal software system to crash, and the router has to crash frequently. According to the analysis of practical results, vrouters with a CPU rate of more than 150 Mips can basically adapt to the working intensity requirements of Multi-Wan Port Routers, and vrouters with a CPU of less than MB, in many environments, the probability of dead-end failures is extremely high, and it seems a little too short to use.
The load balancing mechanism of a Multi-WAN port router is not available for a single WAN port, and is also the most special application mode for multiple WAN ports. There are three common load balancing mechanisms:
1. Session
The system calculates the number of sessions. All sessions are evenly distributed to all enabled WAN ports.
2. Weight round robin
Similar to the Session method, but the Session ratio can be adjusted.
3. Traffic
The system automatically finds the WAN port with the least traffic to send and receive data.
There is also a manually set load balancing method-WAN port path specified, which is 4th load balancing mechanisms, or known as the load distribution mechanism. There is such a specific function in the "Xin Xiang" Multi-WAN router. It is mainly used for education network and industry private network users and selects WAN outlets as needed. For example, CERNET and public network outlets share Education Network, military private network, external ADSL, and other application environments, it is applicable to the load distribution mechanism specified by the WAN port path.
In addition, the multi-Wan port router can also act as line backup. Once a broadband line fails, the other line will assume the data requests of all users, this reinforces the entire network system and avoids catastrophic consequences caused by network egress paralysis. Especially for operational Internet cafes, line faults not only cause financial losses, but also cause serious loss of customers
The consequences will also be unacceptable to Internet cafe owners. Similarly, for some enterprises with relatively high informatization level, the daily dependence on the network system is heavy, and the office business network must be unable to leave. A network system without backup also has a huge potential risk. Therefore, choosing a vro with multiple WAN ports is a wise way for managers to prevent them from happening.
Due to the formation of various broadband access methods and the competitive landscape of telecom operators, broadband means such as optical fiber, ADSL, cable modem, five-class lines, and ISDN coexist, even on ADSL, there are a number of services provided by China Telecom, China Netcom, China tietong, etc. Therefore, in practical applications, we can see that smart users have selected several services at the same time. In terms of charges, this is one factor, concerning the quality of broadband services, network security backup is another important factor. As a result, vrouters with multiple WAN ports are deployed on a large application site.