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__NOTOC__<indicator name="Configuring">[[File:menu-configure.svg|link=:Category:Configuring|30px|Back up to the Configuring Category]]</indicator>
=Related Pages on the A&A Website:=
There are many ways to bond multiple lines together and there are different reasons for wanting to do this. The main reasons are extra overall speed, and added redundancy against failure. The pages below will give you information about how it works, why it's good to bond lines and how to configure routers for bonding lines.
*[http://www.aa.net.uk/broadband-extraline.html www.aaisp.net.uk/broadband-extraline.html]
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AAISP have been providing bonded ADSL services for many years... There are various things to consider and understand...
=Overview=
Our broadband services allow use of multiple lines to provide both of these objectives. Our extra line service allows additional lines on the same login at the same site sharing the same tariff.
One of the key benefits of our service is that downlink bonding can be achieved with nothing more than multiple cheap ADSL routers on your network. There is no need for expensive multi-line ADSL routers.
AAISP support per-packet '''bonding''' - this is at the IP level, and simply means that packets entering or leaving your site use the ADSL lines on a round-robin basis (or based on the speed of the lines). That way, a single TCP/IP session is transmitted over multiple lines.
MLPPP (Multilink PPP) Is not supported - it was originally designed for ISDN, and AAISP take the view that bonding at the IP level is the way to do bonding.
==Advantages==
More bandwidth, as well as resilience (having more that one line increases the probability of staying online in the event of a fault)
People often want greater upload bandwidth so as to improve performance of remote workers (etc. VPN/remote sessions etc.) or sending out large files etc.
==Packet re-ordering==
As IP packets are taking separate routes to get to you, there is potential for packets to be out of order. This can happen where the ADSL lines have different amounts of latency. -this can be overcome to some extent by adding/removing 'interleaving' on the ADSL lines. Latency can be easily seen on the CQL graphs for your lines on the ADSL [[:Category:Control Pages|Control Pages]].
In theory, out of order packets should not be a problem, TCP copes with out of order packets, but some applications may have problems. We have seen some VPNs and specific video streaming applications being very sensitive to packets being out of order. This is rare though.
=Bonding=
==Fast failover==
It is important that when a line fails for any reason the service switches automatically to using the remaining lines. Our constant quality monitoring system means we are constantly monitoring every line and will be able to react to a failure of a line within 10 seconds. When a line goes out of service the routing of traffic can automatically switch to remaining lines.
When using multiple lines for redundancy this allows the fall-back line to come in to service very quickly. When being used for extra speed the failed line simple means less speed until the problem is resolved.
We provide email and text alerts of lines going off line unexpectedly so that you are alerted to the problem.
==Download Bonding for Faster Speed==
'''From the Internet to you.'''
AAISP use FireBrick FB6000 routers to manage ADSL connections. This manages the bonding of traffic from AAISP to your location.
IP blocks (configured on Clueless) can be routed to multiple lines on your login.
for fallback, the FB6000 will stop routing IPs down a line that is off line, and from the [[:Category:Control Pages|Control Pages]] you can control which lines are used.
Speed wise, the FB6000 will route based on the speed of the line - so if you have a 10M line and a 5M line, then the traffic will be weighted correctly (i.e. 1/3 on the 5M line, and 2/3 on the 10M line.)
==Upload Bonding for Faster Speed==
Upload bonding requires a device at your side to route IP packet up alternate lines.
Typically a FireBrick can do this, as well as provide fallback (not using a line that is down) and firewalling. AAISP staff can also configure the Firebrick for your lines for a nominal fee.
There are other devices that can do this, some of the Mikrotik range of routers can do this.
Linux is capable of doing both basic [[Linux upload bonding using multipath routing|upload bonding by multipath routing]]. It can also do [[Linux upload bonding using policy routing|sophisticated upload bonding using a combination of policy routing and firewall rules]].
==IP addressing and routing==
Our control pages allow you to adjust the IP routing on your lines. You can have multiple IP addresses on a login, and each can be set for routing to one or more lines. You can set each IP address block separately and can define backup routing.
The recommended set up is to use a FireBrick and multiple PPPoE modems or bridges. The FireBrick would have one WAN address over all of the lines, and either public Legacy IPv4 addresses on the LAN, or private address and NAT on the FireBrick. In either case you can have public IPv6 addresses on the LAN and still handle bonding down and up on multiple lines.
The alternative if to use separate routers. These would normally share a /29 interlink subnet and connect to some firewall or router within you network, routing a static IP block to that router. The interlink address block could be private IPv4 addresses but you do not want NAT or fire-walling on the external routers even in that case as it will not handle the bonding. In general using the FireBrick and PPPoE is simpler and more flexible.
*Also see our [[IP Routing]] page.
==Tunnelled bonding==
Another approach is to use a tunnelling system of some sort such as a VPN or FireBrick tunnels to tunnel traffic via one or more lines to a tunnel endpoint held in a data centre. We offer hosting services and host FireBricks as tunnel endpoints. Using FB2700's at both sides will allow multiple tunnelled connections which can be via multiple ADSL lines that are even from different internet providers.
=Examples=
<div class="AAMenuRow">
{{AAMenu|img=Menu-information.svg|link=Bonding Information|title=Bonding Overview|text=An introduction to bonding and what benefits it can bring. Read this first to get an overview of bonding lines}}
{{AAMenu|img=Menu-network.svg|link=Bonding IP Settings|title=IP Settings|text=Information about how we route IP addresses over bonded lines}}
{{AAMenu|img=Menu-speed.svg|link=Bonding for speed|title=Bonding for more speed|text=Information on how bonding can help improve upload and download speeds}}
{{AAMenu|img=Menu-bonding.svg|link=Bonding for resilience|title=Bonding for resilience|text=How bonding can improve resilience and reliability of your internet connection}}
{{AAMenu|img=Menu-cog.svg|link=:Category:Bonding Configuration|title=Device Configuration|text=Help pages on setting up particular routers for bonding}}
</div>
==Full Bonding with a FireBrick==
A FireBrick at your side can manage bonding, fallback and firewalling - this would give you maximum benefit of having multiple lines. AAISP staff can configure a router when purchased for bonding for a nominal fee. The [[:Category:FireBrick|FireBrick]] pages also covers config examples for bonding on the 2500 and 2700 FireBricks
=Mixing BT & TT lines=
AAISP BT lines, TalkTalk Wholesale and BE Wholesale lines can all be used for bonding, and gives even great resilience in the case of a fault in BT or a fault in BE. - as of October 2010, BE lines need to run on a reduced MTU of 1492 - and bonding will need all lines to use this reduced MTU. This is an tickbox option on the control pages though
=Bonding FTTC Circuits=
FTTC lines can be bonded in exactly the same way - although we do sometimes see congestion on the BT network due to the huge amount of bandwidth! We have customers bonding 2 FTTC lines with a FireBrick 2700, giving the full throughput.
[[Category:Configuring]]
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