This page describes the use and function of the skyPipes Advanced Router.
The Advanced Router is a class of devices bounded on the consumer side by sharing gateway routers and proxy servers, and on the industrial side by Line or Channel Bonding, Border Gateway Protocol (BGP), and Dynamic Routing (all three of which require extensive Service Provider involvement, usually at great, possibly monthly, expense). Physically, the Advanced Router is a commodity personal computer with off-the-shelf ethernet adapters, running Linux with a patched kernel. The hardware can be anywhere from economy to top-of-the-line, and the software is all Free or Open Source, freely downloadable from the internet.
The basic function of the Advanced Router is to give the hosts on an internal LAN or DMZ redundant connections to the internet by being connected to two or more ISP networks. Hosts in the internal LAN/DMZ need only have a single ethernet interface and may run any TCP/IP-capable OS. This is ideal for taking advantage of multiple low-cost DSL lines to distribute traffic across the different connections while they are up, and reduce, even eliminate downtime by always having a spare line or two operational should there be a brief, or even extended outage on one of the ISP's connections. Any number of connections can be leveraged, limited only by how many ethernet interfaces are added to the Advanced Router.
In order to provide redundancy, the Advanced Router uses a combination of Network Address Translation, Static Alternative Routes, and Dead Gateway Detection. The Advanced Router translates multiple routable IP addresses to one non-routable IP address and back again. Configuration preferences are set using a convenient, secure, database-backed web application designed to detect new interfaces and hosts for easy maintenance. For greater redundancy, a second Advanced Router can act as a Tandem Partner, reconfigurable on the fly to seamlessly take over if the first should require routine upgrades, maintenance, or replacement.
Key features include:
- Advanced Rules and Routes
- Network Address Translation and Filtering
- Static Alternative Routes
- Dead Gateway Detection
- Tandem Failover
- RDF Database Schema
- Easy to use, highly secure web GUI
Copyright © 2003 Derek Doyle <dtd@skybuilders.com>.
Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts. A copy of the license is included in the section entitled "GNU Free Documentation License".
Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts. A copy of the license is included in the section entitled "GNU Free Documentation License".
