Routing between sites

[Scifigirl]

We are taking on a new site about a mile away from us and we need to route traffic between the two, does anyone have the same setup? How do you do it?

 

Kinda been left in the lurch by our current supplier, who want a lot of money to lay fibre between us, which is not necessary.

 

Any ideas/help appreciated!

[synaesthesia]

Our school (one school) is split in 2 and we have a dedicated fiber line leased by CityFiber connecting the two. Not cheap though as you can imagine. It would be very much worth looking at some of the wireless solutions if you have vague line of site, particularly those by Ubiquiti - for a couple of grand you could have a very good & reliable link.

Failing that, are the two sites using the same internet provider? What are the options they've given?

[FishCustard]

We are taking on a new site about a mile away from us and we need to route traffic between the two, does anyone have the same setup? How do you do it?

 

Public roads?

 

 

On a more serious note, if both schools are on the same ISP then some sort of inter-site routing should be possible. Failing that then yes, a point-to-point microwave link can work.

[localzuk]

Your options are:

 

1. VPN over existing connections (site to site, with routing rules on the core switch/edge routers to direct traffic to each site)

2. Get a point to point ethernet connection. A 1Gbps OpenReach ethernet extension should be less than £3k a year via pretty much any reseller - we use Exa

3. Replace both connections with a MPLS/VPLS with internet breakout or similar.

We do number 2 - all our sites have one of those circuits back to our main site, then we have a normal leased line out to the net at the main site. We did number 1 originally.

 

If you've got line of site, you could use something like an Airfibre wireless link. Or you could look at microwave links.

Edited July 15, 2019 by localzuk

[Scifigirl]

Failing that, are the two sites using the same internet provider? What are the options they've given?

 

Same ISP. The only option given so far is the fibre line. Both contracts end in March and we were doing our usual round of checking out other suppliers, we don't want to get into another contract for these suppliers - probably - unless really best value.

[FN-GM]

The good thing about getting a point to point is that you will only need an internet connection at one of the sites. This can save some money.

[SchoolsBroadband]

Hi @meadowgirl we do this for lots of schools around the country already. @localzuk has summarised all options very well.

 

I'd like to add a couple of things though for you to think about.

 

1. How much data do you want to send between sites? This is important is considering in putting a site to site fibre (e.g. an Ethernet Access Direct (EAD)) may be quite expensive, particularly if both sites connect via a different BT Telephone Exchange. Any supplier will be able to easily tell you what the price is an if an EAD would go via two different telephone exchanges. If you use a lot of data then a point to point Ethernet circuit would be good. If you use a small amount of data then an IPSEC VPN or MPLS / VPLS on the suppliers core network and using hosted based filtering and firewalling would work very nicely too.

 

2. If you did put in a direct point to point circuit then following on from @FN-GM s comment I'd also recommend putting in a circuit at each site but using different underlying carriers AND a different access technology. e.g. site 1 has a fibre leased line using Talk Talk, site 2 uses an FTTC/ G.Fast / FTTP connection from an alternative underlying carrier. This gives you carrier resiliency. However if the fibre was cut at site 1 then it's likely the EAD will also go down as they'll use the same route back to the local telephone exchange.

 

3. For the ultimate setup use Virgin fibre at site 1 with a BT EAD to site 2 and then use an FTTC or 4G solution at site 2 as the backup connection.

 

4. Furthering all that SD-WAN is now here too just to complicate things even more!

 

Feel free to send me a PM or give me a call if you want some advice.

 

Cheers and good luck

 

Dave

[localzuk]

Can I just ask what people think of as "expensive" btw? As its a relative term - putting our EAD PTP lines in was *cheap* for us compared to other options, for example.

[SVM]

Depends on the school, primary sites 3k is expensive, secondary it would be cheap.

 

We have a mix of schools so utilise WAN for majority of secondary and dual business lines at primary, primary cost is around £800 without utm

[MatthewL]

Both sites have internet I would just setup a site to site VPN as a start, cost should be next to nothing unless you need to replace routers etc but that is a start. We used to run all our site to site VPN's over the internet.