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Bandwidth Aggregation and its functions

Bandwidth aggregation merges two or more Internet connections and gives the Internet applications the access to the total bandwidth available. This results in increased reliability with the link redundancy.

The implementation of the process could be either simple or complex and could include load balancing and failover. Bandwidth aggregation could be carried out through software or could be built into a T-1 router or broadband. The bandwidth aggregation solutions are available at varying costs.

Types of Bandwidth Aggregation

There are two fundamental types of bandwidth aggregation.

  • The older type of bandwidth aggregation is channel bundling or link bonding. This essentially needs the support of multiple ISPs and special routers that use the Border Gateway Protocol (BGP).

Typically, the cost and difficulty in securing the IP support (many ISPs will not support BGP for end users) of this approach is not an option for small to medium sized organizations.

  • The other type of bandwidth aggregation maintains the individual TCP/IP sessions on multiple links instead of connecting the links.

This approach facilitates businesses to utilize the total bandwidth of up to 15 different ISPs. This is accomplished by a combination of intelligent load balancing and Quality of Service rules. These in turn determine the bandwidth minimums and maximums for specific applications and other features.

There is not a need for special arrangements to be arranged with any ISP and any kind of WAN link (like xDSL, wireless, cable, T1/E1, Frame relay, satellite) that can be used in any combination for an increased bandwidth. This approach helps businesses to aggregate the multiple types of ISP links, get rid of exposure to a single point of failure and add more low-cost links to increase the aggregation of bandwidth, as and when it is needed.

Load Balancers and Bandwidth Aggregation

Load Balancers help in the aggregating solutions. There are several market players offering aggregation solutions, usually as a "load balancing router" or other network appliance like D-Link, Fatpipe and so on. There are appliances that suit every company’s budget.