Ethernet Switching Reference Guide

Customer Profile
• Medium and large businesses
• Enterprise businesses, Hosting providers, Content
providers, e-Businesses that need a highly reliable
and failsafe Internet connection
• Customers using multihomed ISP connections
• Customers who need ISP failover functions
Typical Applications
• WAN Link Load Balancing
• Bandwidth Management for ISP links
• First line of security into corporate networks
Key Points
• Fail-safe business continuity
• Network optimisation
• Security
• For multi-homing environments
Features and Benefits
• Enables fail-safe business continuity by efficiently
load balancing multiple WAN links and providing
link failover.
• Improves business productivity and simplifies
operations by optimising WAN links for
application performance.
• Protects applications and networks via multi-layer
security
• Scales business applications and network capacity
efficiently without downtime.
• Simplifies operations and deployment of
Multi-homing
• Removes the need for complicated BGP based
solutions
• Full featured load balancing, health checking and
Bandwidth rate limiting
• Maximises return on IT investment
• Utilise existing infrastructure more efficiently
• Utilise previously idled backup WAN links
• Transparent to users and ISP providers
Alteon Link Optimizer (ALO)
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Alteon Link
Optimizer (ALO)
Overview
Nortel Networks Alteon Link Optimizer is designed to simplify multi-homing and optimise multiple WAN links
for application performance, scalability, and cost-effectiveness while also providing a first line of security for
network assets. With both Fast Ethernet and Gigabit Ethernet models available, enterprises can choose a
model best suited to meet their network requirements for maximum ROI.
The Alteon Link Optimizer combines the load balancing intelligence of its special link optimizer software,
called the WAN LB OS, with the fast packet processing engine built by its mature ASIC distributed technology.
For the outbound and inbout traffic, the Alteon Link Optimizer will determine the best ISP link to sent out the
traffic. The measurement of the best ISP link is determined on a sliding average weighted window to ensure
that the best link is always chosen. At the same time, each of the ISP router is been checked regularly to
ensure that the router can properly handle the traffic. The Alteon Link Optimizer assures that traffic returns
via the same ISP link that the request originally specified for the client initiated. The symmetric traffic flow
will ensure that each ISP handles both the ingress and the egress portion of a session.