Big dilemma: symmetric vs asymmetric?

RouterOS General
1

Hi guys,

I’m working on a project to provide wifi into. a mall and I’m having a big dilemma regarding the internet connection. For the same price I can get a symmetric and dedicated connecting of 4mb (of course, 4mb down/4mb up) or 3 connections asymmetric for 30mb down/3mb up (90mb down / 9mb up, in total).
Is very clear to me the differences between each type of connection but my logic says that I should go for the three asymmetric connections because in the worst scenario, instead of 30mb each I may get 2mb and even in that case I’m having a better bandwidth.
Do I miss something? I don’t understand why a dedicated and symmetric connection could be better under this logic!
Thanks!

2

If both are supposed to have the same quality and bandwidth is guaranteed in the same terms (maybe even if not), I’d go for the three standalone assymetric lines.

PCC Load balancing those lines suits this scenario as being in a mall you’re going to have connections spread over a good number of wireless clients, and in the worst case, a single client uploading over a single line is going to be much similar that the symmetric line alone (3mbps vs 4 mbps).

I think 4mb download is too anemic for a mall, how many APs do you plan to deploy? how many average people go to that mall daily? any peak figures?

3

I’m not sure about how many access points are in the mall (they are already installed) but I know that the DHCP gets to assign ~400 IPs with a lease of 1 hour in the peak times…

4

Then I’d go for minimum 3 assymetric DSL lines, watch usage and suggest adding more if congestion is noticed.

5

Cool, thanks!

By the way, I’m planning to use a Mikrotik CCR1036-12G-4S-EM on this mall, I can use it as load balancer for the three Internet connections, right? or you suggest to use some external load balancer?

6

to route/firewall and load balance the VDSLs? or are you going to use Capsman to control the APs?

You cannot go wrong with a CCR1036, but I think it will be overkill… gonna stay sitting on 0% processor.

A 1100AHx2 or CCR1009 will be more than enough in terms of power. Even less powerful devices like a RB2011UiAS or a RB850Gx2 can cope with that bandwidth, but you cannot go wrong with the former two.