CCR1009 as customer router + CRS326 as NAT router

Hello Folks!

In my network I Have about 4000 clients with an average traffic of 6-8 Gbps. I’m starting to get into some network refactoring in order to accommodate a couple enterprise customers without having to change all my network gear.

Right now part of my network is controller by a CCR1009-7G-1C-1S+ which has Clients VLAN, DHCP Server, Client with NAT, Clients Without NAT, 0 Queues, with an average of 3Gbps traffic it usually sits about 75% CPU which is very far away from the 11Gbps according to Mikrotik testing.

After some testing I was able to hit 10Gbps traffic around 95% CPU by disabling the Bridge VLAN Filtering and Firewall Connection Tracking but the main issue with this approach is that it won’t work for the customers behind NAT so I was thinking about using a CRS326-24G-2S+RM as a NAT router for the CCR1009 taking advantage of his L3-HW capabilities. At first test it seems to be working fine and the CRS switch remains almost at 3% even with NAT traffic.

My biggest concern comes when I think about the possibility of having some QoS Happening, maybe using some Queues in the CCR1009, if my understanding is correct this will force me to use again the connection tracking so I’m not sure if maybe I’m just overcomplicating things or if this approach will eventually deliver a higher throughput than just having the CCR1009 doing eveything.

3Gbps traffic it usually sits about 75% CPU

CCR1009-7G-1C-1S+ this is pretty much the max of this device and yes connection tracking will disable NAT/Masquerade CRS-326 is a switch with limited routing capability so it won’t benefit you use CCR2116 instead the difference is night and day you can still repurpose your CCR1009 so don’t sell it or throw it away

+1 for 2116, its a beast and not all the expensive in comparison to other devices.
16Gig throughput with 25 filter rules for example.

I already have a CCR2116 as BGP Edge and its a killer solution, however the idea for at least the 3 upcoming months its to continue using the current equipment and aim for a change to 2116s or 2216s by end of year so that’s the reason for trying to squeeze more juice from the current equipment