DSL and Frame Realy connections at the same platform?

[MAQAQM]

hi gurus,

I have an ADSL connection already running in my network, the company has now acquired a Frame Relay, is it possible to configure the two on one network ? is it possible to put two routers with different connections and ISPs?
help
AQM

 

[lambent]

Sure. It all depends on how you want your traffic to go in and out through these 2 WAN links. You can treat the 2 WAN links as active-standby, or active-active with manual load-sharing.

 

[MAQAQM]

hi,

can you help me with practical steps how can I do that?

AQM

 

[lambent]

It really depends on your router models and features available. You need to at least give us the requirements and information on your existing network infrastructure.

You'll have to ask yourself a few questions:

1) How many public IPs per ISP?
2) How many WAN routers do you want?
3) Are these WAN routers the default gateway of your PCs? Or are there any routers or layer-3 devices between your WAN routers and your PCs? And what are the models of these devices?
5) Do you want an active-active approach or active-standby approach?

 

[MAQAQM]

Responses:

1)I have 1(one) Public IP per ISP
2)I have only one Router and Two Switches
3)Yes. the Router is the Default Gateway of the DSl Connection, but the Framerelay does not have its own router. I only have the router and the switches connecting to the router. the Router is SMC7008ABR - BARRICADE. the switches : LG 3124 and LG 3124beta, FrameRelay terminal: ALVARION, WALKair TS-BU
4)I want an either.

please help
AQM

 

[lambent]

Are you sure that SMC7008ABR supports frame-relay? I just know it has a serial COM port but I doubt it supports frame-relay.

And honestly you need a more intelligent WAN router such as Cisco router to provide redundancy and load-sharing of WAN links.

 

[MAQAQM]

how about SONIC WALL router. could it fit? please demonstrate steps to follow to set the active-active approach. thanks

 

[lambent]

it really depends on the features of the router you use. Say for Cisco routers, you can use policy-based routing such that for host 1 to 10 you'll use DSL while for host 11 to 20 you'll use frame. Not every router is intelligent enough to do this.

If your budget allows, go for Cisco.

Again your question said "is it possible to put two routers with different connections and ISPs?". So are you going to use 2 routers so that 1 router for DSL, 1 router for frame? Or just 1 router so both DSL and frame are on this same router?

 

[MAQAQM]

Tow routers one for DSL and one for Frame. and then do I separate the hosts or stations also, but have a single network. how about this?
AQM

 

[lambent]

Say you're running these WAN links between remote sites, one is frame, the other is VPN over DSL:

For Site A you have:

LAN subnet: 192.168.0.0/23
Router-A for frame: LAN IP = 192.168.0.1/23
Router-B for DSL: LAN IP = 192.168.1.1/23
Your hosts PC use static IP and have the following IP configuration:
Hosts with 192.168.0.2 - 192.168.0.254 use router-A as default gateway
Hosts with 192.168.1.2 - 192.168.1.254 use router-B as default gateway

For Site B you have:

LAN subnet: 192.168.2.0/23
Router-C for frame: LAN IP = 192.168.2.1/23
Router-D for DSL: LAN IP = 192.168.3.1/23
Your hosts PC use static IP and have the following IP configuration:
Hosts with 192.168.2.2 - 192.168.2.254 use router-C as default gateway
Hosts with 192.168.3.2 - 192.168.3.254 use router-D as default gateway

Then on Router-A, put static route for 192.168.2.0/24
On Router-B, put static route for 192.168.3.0/24
On Router-C, put static route for 192.168.0.0/24
On Router-D, put static route for 192.168.1.0/24

You can manually do the load-sharing but the percentage may not necessarily be 50/50 cos it depends on the traffic pattern on the hosts. And this involves huge administrative overhead.

Also if one router goes down, then half of your network will go down too.