Load sharing

Network Optimization - Load sharing between ISPs or one ISP as main and other ISP as backup link

Illustration below shows simple multi homed BGP setup. This setup can be used for load sharing between ISPs or one ISP as main and other ISP as backup link.

Lets say that local Internet registry assigned to us two /24 networks: 10.1.1.0/24 and 10.1.2.0/24 and our AS is 30 (Private AS cannot be used in such setups). First network entirely is used for workstations in our corporate network. Part of the other network is also used for workstation and another part is reserved for server. At this point our company has only one server with address 10.1.2.130
The goal is advertise our assigned networks to BGP peers and use only one provider as main link, ISP2 link is for backup only.

BGP Peering
Consider that IP connectivity between ISPs edge routers and Our Core router is already set up and working properly. So we can start to establish BGP peering to both ISPs.
#set our AS number
/routing bgp instance
set default as=30

#add BGP peers
/routing bgp peer
add name=toISP1 remote-address=192.168.1.1 remote-as=10
add name=toISP2 remote-address=192.168.2.1 remote-as=20
If everything is set up properly, peer should have E (established) flag and router should receive bunch of BGP routes from both ISPs
[admin@RB1100test] /routing bgp peer> print
Flags: X - disabled, E - established
# INSTANCE REMOTE-ADDRESS REMOTE-AS
0 E default 192.168.1.1 10
1 E default 192.168.1.2 20

Network Advertisements and Routing Filters
Now we can start to advertise our networks and filter out all other unnecessary advertisements.
First step is to advertise our networks
/routing bgp network
add network=10.1.1.0/24 synchronize=no
add network=10.1.2.0/24 synchronize=no

Next step is to specify which routing filter chains will be used
/routing bgp peer
set isp1 in-filter=isp1-in out-filter=isp1-out
set isp2 in-filter=isp2-in out-filter=isp2-out
in-filter is for incoming (received) prefixes, out-filter is for advertised prefixes.

Main/Backup link setup
After chains are specified we can accept our networks and drop everything else as we are not transit provider. As we know one of the BGP attributes that influence best path selection is AS Path length (shorter AS Path is more preferred). So as we want ISP2 to be backup only, we will use BGP AS prepend (increase length of AS path) to force incoming traffic through ISP1.
Outgoing filters to ISP1:
/routing filter
#accept our networks
add chain=isp1-out prefix=10.1.1.0/24 action=accept
add chain=isp1-out prefix=10.1.2.0/24 action=accept
#discard the rest
add chain=isp1-out action=discard
Outgoing filters to ISP2:
/routing filter
#accept our networks and prepend AS path three times
add chain=isp2-out prefix=10.1.1.0/24 action=accept set-bgp-prepend=3
add chain=isp2-out prefix=10.1.2.0/24 action=accept set-bgp-prepend=3
#discard the rest
add chain=isp2-out action=discard

We also do not need any routes from both ISPs, because default route is used to force outgoing traffic through ISP1 and leave ISP2 as backup.
/routing filter
add chain=isp1-in action=discard
add chain=isp2-in action=discard
/ip route
add gateway=192.168.1.1 check-gateway=ping
add gateway=192.168.2.1 distance=30 check-gateway=ping

Load sharing setup

Using previous setup we are kind of wasting one link. So it is possible to redesign our setup as illustrated below to utilize both links.

The same as in previous setup BGP AS prepend will be used to achieve our goal. This time we will advertise one of the networks to ISP1 without prepend and another network prepended three times. The opposite for ISP2.
Outgoing filters to ISP1:
/routing filter
#accept our networks and prepend second network
add chain=isp1-out prefix=10.1.1.0/24 action=accept
add chain=isp1-out prefix=10.1.2.0/24 action=accept set-bgp-prepend=3
#discard the rest
add chain=isp1-out action=discard
Outgoing filters to ISP2:
/routing filter
#accept our networks and prepend first network
add chain=isp2-out prefix=10.1.1.0/24 action=accept set-bgp-prepend=3
add chain=isp2-out prefix=10.1.2.0/24 action=accept
#discard the rest
add chain=isp2-out action=discard

This is the possible cheapest solution we had taken for our company. We have used Mikrotik router as a cheapest solution.

Network Optimization - Load sharing between ISPs or one ISP as main and other ISP as backup link

Network Optimization - Internet Speed and cost is really important now days. When two internet service providers is providing different kind of service. Like if we have one Internet Service Provider is A1 who is expensive but Service is good and downtime is less and other service provider is UPS who´s solution is cheapest but downtime is higher than we have find one solution for our organization to combine both the Service and then we will need Load balance internet traffic. I'm interested in load balancing internet traffic (outbound -AND- INBOUND) using multiple (at least 2) ISPs. Some of the methods I have used in the past have certain weaknesses.. basic DNS load balancer (relies on multiple IP addresses per host), OER/PFR (ability to control INbound is limited unless complex configuration and cooperation with ISPs)...
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