Hi all,
I have 2 WAN links of 45 Mbps each
and peering link of 100 Mbps.
My software vendor says, Mikrotik router is not good in doing load balancing so better avoid. Is it so?
If its possible, please guide me how to establish load balancing, so that I ll get the combined bandwidth of 90 Mbps.
I am using Cloud core router CCR1009
Load Balancing is exactly what the name says, it balances the load of your WAN connection. It does not automatically mean “bond all my connections into one”. You have two 45Mbps connections, that’s it. They are not bonded and will not be bonded in anyway to make them 90Mbps. In order to do that your ISP would need to bond the two 45Mbps circuits together on their side.
You do have options for such as PCC, which is what many Google searches will return for this, or you can use Queues to handle the traffic based on type or bandwidth usage. While the PCC option will be the one you get the most search results about and will even find videos on YouTube showing speed tests (such as 45Mbps WANs) and the testing showing almost 90Mbps of speed. That is a false flag.
PCC will mark and split the traffic out of the router and then “rebuild” it based on the replies and connection markings but at the end of the day you’re basically sending packets out each WAN. So if WAN2 is having issues then the traffic going out WAN2 will be impacted and it can slow down the connection because WAN2 could be waiting for responses or replies and not getting them.
I’m not bashing or saying don’t use PCC but there is this general myth that PCC somehow will take the WANs and bind them together, which is just does not do. So again, in your case you have two 45Mbps connections and your 100Mbps peer. So while you will have 290Mpbs overall for the Internet you do not have a 290Mbps pipe, you still have 3 pipes each limited by their bandwidth allocation.