Hi guys We’ve deployed our WISP with a central PPPOE via VPLS tunnels .
VPLS works well and we have full 1500 bytes trough it , each tunnel have one PPPOE server .
But the problem isVPLS tunnels disconnect for 60 seconds (minimum) for any packet lost on remote sites, so all of that site’s pppoe users will disconnect.
The long distance remotes sites connected via Point to point wireless got packet lost 10 times in 24 hour and each time VPLS tunnels will down for long time .
If I change the VPLS to EOIP , pppoe users connected trough it just got some packet lost (very stable than VPLS) , but VPLS have a better performance and lower CPU usage.
Is there anyway to reduce the down time or prevent from disconnecting ? (other than fix the long distance wireless links
Why don’t you put routers at the towers and terminate the pppoe connections on the tower that the clients are connected to?
Are the VPLS tunnels back to the core with one PPPoE server and all your clients are terminating at the core?
We run long distance wireless links and do not experience this.
Even if VPLS tunnels go down for some reason, they typically only take 10 seconds to come back, not 60. The 60 seconds makes me suspect that it is actually something else that is going down, most likely something like OSPF, or possibly LDP neighbor. You should be prioritizing OSPF and LDP over the wireless link to avoid other traffic from interfering with your routing protocols.
One bit of info missing, does the wireless link go down for 60 seconds before connects again?
Reason I am asking is we have a wireless link, 2 x LHG 5ac’s, short distance (about 700 meters) but sometimes takes up to 3 minutes to connect again if the wireless link dropped and reason seems to be taking long to scan through frequencies to connect again.
Thanks ,Yes, you are right. It seems from OSPF because of VPLS connect exactly when OSPF reconnect , and if I disable/enable a VPLS it will connect about 5 sec.
I don’t find any good document about it, if is possible get some help that how can I configure it.
I don’t have any QOS or priority configuration on routers / links.
NOTE : if I disable/enable a wireless links , the CPE will connect in 10 seconds and packet transmit trough it but the OSPF will reconnect/establish in same 60 seconds. it seems broadcast it in a fixed 60 seconds.
I have several networks like this I have set up and work reliably so it should work
Have you managed to find out why you are getting wireless disconnects - this is the first thing to fix.
next question - are you routing all the way through your network or are the radios bridged ? If OSPF breaks it can take a while to renegotiate and select DR, BDR etc.
If using routed links with /30 addresses then be sure to select OSPF network-type=point-to-point on the relevant interfaces so no DR selection is required.
Are you using Mikrotik radios and routers or a mix of technologies ? If Mikroitk set multicast-helper=full on the wlan interfaces - turns multicast OSPF into unicast and is much more stable.
If you are bridging your wireless links then be sure to enable BFD under OSPF so you get fast discovery of a failure and restore.
e.g Router A (BFD enabled)----Bridge Radio1------Bridge Radio2— (BFD Enabled|) Router B
In the above example Router A & B interfaces connected to the Radios would also be set to network-type=point-to-point if the radios do not support ospf. In that scenario just set a gateway on the radios that points back towards the router nearest your management network.
Decreasing downtime is good so certainly follow that feedback but also prioritize OSPF to prevent the downtime from happening in the first place. We have very reliable OSPF over wireless, in some places even set to broadcast (although as scampbell said point-to-point is better), that are completely stable and highly available because we prioritize the OSPF traffic.
@scampbell : Thanks , I’ll try to to do this tips and let you know. @mducharme : Thanks , I learned to do with below configs, if it needs more please explain .
We have packet lost or disconnect always in humidity days in coolest time of night (in summer always).
All of network is routed on each site and just wireless links are in P2P mode / Bridge.
each site have a /29 addresses for self or for next site , for example :
Router [IP x.x.x.1/29] ===> AP device (bridged) [IP x.x.x.2/29] ===> CPE device (bridged) [IP x.x.x.3/29] ===> Router [IP x.x.x.4/29] .
For this type of connection I still need to set " point to point " as network type in OSPF ?
All of Routers and Wireless links are Mikrotik.
I comment on simple for any future readers like me (Correct me if I’m wrong).
OSPF interface [network type] from broadcast change to point to point , do this in Routers .
If you have MikroTik radios, use “set priority” action to 7 for OSPF traffic. If the radio is routing you can do that with a mangle rule, or if the radio is bridging you will need to do it with a bridge filter. That will prioritize it as long as you are using either NV2 or WMM. If you are using NV2 change to the 8 queue option instead of the default 2 queues.
Network type=point-to-point is only used where there are just two OSPF devices involved in a subnet. Easiest example is where two Mikrotik’s connect wlan1-wlan1 and have a /30. If more than two devices running ospf the NBMA might be a better choice for your wireless. see https://wiki.mikrotik.com/wiki/Manual:OSPF-examples#NBMA_networks
If you have a /29 and a Mikrotik at each endpoint and a pair of bridged non-ospf wireless devices in the middle then I would also use P2P rather than broadcast on that segment. This is also an example of where BFD should be used. If the wireless link breaks then the interfaces on the Mikrotik routers will not be immediately aware and wait unitl the timers expire before realising the link is down.
If you are Mikrotik Wireless to Mikrotik Wireless and each wlan1 is using ospf then you dont need BFD as OSPF would be aware instantly wlan1 failed.
I always use the multicast-helper=full on wireless interfaces running OSPF. No negative impact, only stability in my experience.
You mention wireless disconnects due to humidity etc - perhaps you could share a bit more info on the setup there - frequency, distance, devices etc and what is the TX/RX Signal and CCQ when working (check your registration table) ? This is most likely the cause of the issue while all the other thoughts will only help once the link re-establishes… Be sure to check CCQ while there is live traffic passing
Just regarding NBMA OSPF type. I would advise against it. I’ve had issues with NBMA being unreliable for no apparent reason
I’ve found the best option on MikroTik if you have a point-to-multipoint setup is to instead create separate VLAN interfaces (1 for each neighboring router) and then use the point-to-point network type over those VLAN interfaces instead. Much more reliable
