Dual WAN

A Wide Area Network (WAN) is often viewed as the pathway to the information superhighway. It is a data communications network that spreads over a broad geographic area. WANs use routers and other communication carrier devices to share information across the globe. The most common communication links employed by WANs are telephone lines, satellite channels, datalines, wireless, and microwave links. Dual WANs make use of two of these links.

The Information-based economy is steadily demanding the high availability of WANs. Business continuity is the core element that determines the growth of businesses in terms of achieving work goals, productivity, and turnover. This requires a stable WAN infrastructure so that services may be uninterrupted. Dual WAN can provide stability and redundant connectivity. Continuous ‘uptime’ is what companies seek to maintain the flow of business operations.

The last few years has seen a steep increase in network traffic and network congestion is common in both inbound and outbound IP traffic. A single WAN connection does not guarantee continuous connectivity as network outages and other types of technical snags are probable leading to failure. Dual WAN technology addresses these vulnerable areas and enables network connectivity without disruptions. WANs work on the lower three layers of the OSI model, namely, physical layer, data link layer, and network layer. Leased Line, Circuit Switching, Packet Switching, and Cell Relay are the various options through which WAN connectivity is established. Dual WAN utilizes two of these options and ensures optimization.

WAN speed is dependent on dataline capacity. Dual WAN technology will provide enhanced connectivity since it uses two WAN links. While Analog and ISDN (Integrated Services Digital Network) are economical and commonly used, they do not improve performance and necessitate a dial-up connection between sites. Moreover, the link is not up at all times and needs to be restored whenever information is sent. Faster technologies such as DSL and cable modem links have permanent links and step-up the connectivity speed and reliability. Dual WAN employs two of the links, for instance, a DSL link and a cable modem link, which render high performance. Dual WAN is advantageous due to the fact that it ensures uptime consistently, thereby enabling business continuity.

Dual WAN has two advantages – maximum bandwidth and failover options. Increased bandwidth can be achieved since there are two links in usage, and the traffic is load balanced between the two active links. In cases of a network outage in one of the lines, there is an automatic failover option, which enables switching over to the active link and connectivity is uninterrupted.

Dual WAN connections are effective when appropriate devices are used. While Dual WANs solve the redundancy problem, they are cumbersome and require BGP programming to set up. Oftentimes programming expertise is not found on staff and has to be done by outside experts. This is expensive and adds to the cost of the solution. High-end technology solutions such as those provided by FatPipe Networks provides WAN redundancy without the hassle of programming. This technology is easy to deploy and has many features, which makes it very powerful.

FatPipe Networks offers solutions that combine multiple WAN connections, and increase reliability and redundancy for data traffic in the inward and outward directions. The efficiency of WANs is increased with FatPipe devices’ enhanced features including dynamic load balancing and automatic failover capabilities.