Geographical Link Balancing

GEOGRAPHICAL LINK BALANCING

Elfiq Link Balancers can perform load balancing across multiple sites using its unique GeoLink feature. A key element for
geographic balancing is the exchange of information between Elfiq devices at different geographical sites. Information
is exchanged via GeoLink, which is usually established over a WAN link between connected sites, or through a VPN
connection. The Elfiq Link Balancer at one site will push data to the device at a remote site via GeoLink. The same occurs
in the opposite
direction. With both sites pushing data, there is a bidirectional information flow but each individual geographic link is
unidirectional. Data is sent at a configurable rate. The Elfiq Link Balancer will also poll the remote unit to test GeoLink’s
availability. Once GeoLink is configured between all units, each Elfiq Link Balancer has the knowledge of the other sites for
decision making. The exchanged data contains all of the local site information including metrics, counters and incoming
IDNS resources to load balance.

INBOUND GEOLINK
Inbound GeoLink is a key functionality for customers who need to ensure their hosted services & applications are always
available across Data Centers. With Inbound GeoLink, Internet users can access your customer’s resources through all
links at all locations. In a nutshell, all participating Elfiq Link Balancers share their link information and configuration
so that each unit can have a complete view. The Elfiq Link Balancers will intercept DNS queries and determine the best
available links through which Internet users should connect. This simple solution can easily provide the off-site element
to a disasterrecovery plan.

As part of a standard IDNS deployment, additional name server (NS) records are added. These records point to IP addresses
on the alternate links. The same applies for Inbound GeoLink deployments except that NS records pointing to all sites will
be added. When an Internet user makes a DNS request for a FQDN, it will be intercepted by a Link Balancer at any site
that is still available.

Local resources, such as web servers or FTP servers, will be configured in the IDNS RR section of the Elfiq Link Balancer
configuration. They may be available via multiple local links, if applicable. In the context of Inbound GeoLink, they will also
be exported to the Link Balancer at a remote site with the export command. They will be merged with local records on the
remote unit that have the same name. In that manner, an Internet user that makes a DNS request for a geographically
dispersed resource record at one site may get an IP address pointing to a different more available site.

martellotech.com
elfiq.com
GLOBAL GEOLINK
The same can be said about outbound Internet access. If local Internet links become unavailable, the local Link Balancer
can channel traffic to a remote Link Balancer over the existing WAN link. From there, traffic is placed on the remote
location’s Internet link and off-site browsing is engaged.

In the following example, you will notice that the session is processed by the local’s site Firewall in the example, and it did
not go through the back site’s firewall. This is done on purpose to prevent the necessity of replciation security rules in both
firewalls.

The returning traffic from the internet destination will automatically take the same path in reverse.

Private VFIs (Virtual Forwarder Interface, or Elfiq Link Balancer Instances) are used for WAN or private link balancing while
public VFIs are used for Internet link balancing. They are identified with numbers (e.g. VFI0, VFI1, VFI2) but this manual
may refer to them as “private” or “public”. Communication between VFIs within the same Elfiq Link Balancer is done
through Channels. A Channel is a conduit within the Link LB from one VFI to another, or to the same VFI itself. That is
because when a Channel is configured, it can be made to point to the “inside” or “outside” of a given VFI.

Once traffic is received on the “inside” of the “private” VFI, there may be one or more GMACs available for transport to the
remote Link Balancer. Those would be WAN links from the local site who’s Internet links are down, to the remote site. This
traffic is sent via the WAN using NATTP, an advanced encapsulation protocol with encryption support.

About Martello
Founded in 2009, Martello Technologies is a company headquartered in Ottawa, Canada with staff in Canada,
the United States and France. In January of 2018, Martello merged with SD-WAN player Elfiq Networks to offer a
solution that pairs performance management software with SD-WAN technology to provide stellar UC performance.
Martello’s solutions deliver confidence in the performance of real-time services on cloud and enterprise networks
and is a proven provider of performance management software for Mitel customers.

martellotech.com info@martellotech.com

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